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REMARKABLE NARRATIVES 



RECORDS OF POWERFUL REVIVALS, 



STRIKING PROVIDENCES, WONDERFUL RELIGIOUS 

EXPERIENCES, TRAGIC DEATH-BED SCENES, 

AND OTHER AUTHENTIC INCIDENTS, 

To which is added some valuable hints for Christian workers^ 



By REV. A. -SI MS.. 



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- ■ 



PRICE, $1.00. 



Published and for sale by Hague & Co., 
6123 Penn Avenue, East End, Pittsburgh, Pa. 

1902. 



£5 



THE LtfcRARYOF 
CONGRESS. 

Two Copies Rocoivotf 

DEC 29 1902 

Copyright Entry 

CLASS CU XXc. No 

COPY B. 



Entered according to act of Congress, in the year 1902, by Fredrick G. 
Hague, in the office of librarian of Congress, at "Washington. 



* « 

• •• • ' 



4 






.?. 



^ 



GEORGE BURGUM, PRINTER, PITTSBURGH, PA. 



PREFACE 



The objects sought to be attained by the publication 
of this book are manifold. Briefly stated, they are : 
1. To convince the unbeliever of the mighty power 
of God to save to the uttermost, to heal the sick, 
deliver the oppressed, feed the hungry, and clothe the 
naked. 2. To warm careless sinners of the terrible 
doom that awaits them ; to show in as striking a 
manner as possible the awful havoc sin is making, 
and thus save some perhaps as " brands from the 
burning." 3. To provide solid food for those who 
are " hungering and thirsting after righteousness," 
and to stir up the indolent to holy zeal and useful- 
ness. 4. To promote experimental piety, and to 
kindle revival fires all over the land. 

In the preparation of this work we have aimed 
to provide something that will stir the souls of men, 
something that in these days of awful indifference 
will move them to action, and cause them to feel 



IV PREFACE. 

intensely alive to eternal things. A great under- 
taking, you say. True, but ought we not to attempt 
great things for God ? Is anything, even in these 
days, too hard for the Lord ? 

1 ' Is not thy grace as mighty now 
As when Elijah felt its power, 
When glory beamed from Mos#s' brow, 
Or Job endured the trying hour ? " 

Most certainly it is. In the full confidence that God 
will so bless the reading of this book as to accomplish 
great and eternal good, we send it forth to the world 
on its mission of faith, hope and love. 

Albert Sims. 

Kiskjston, January, 1896. 



CONTENTS 



Page 
The Infidel Son 7 

A Minister's Consecration 11 

The Awful End of a Backslider 16 

Eternity ! Where ? 20 

Dying Testimonies - 22 

A Burning and a Shining Light 25 

The Trial of Faith - 32 

Father, Take my Hand 38 

Unseen Guardians - - - - - - - - 41 

Henry Martyn ---------45 

Agony for Souls -------- 52 

Gregory Lopez -56 

Deacon Lee's Opinion 61 

Quench Not the Spirit 66 

Soliloquy of a Lost Soul ------- 69 

A Prince in Israel 70 

A Scene in Prison -------- 79 

Apostrophe to Rum --------81 

A Vision — The Missing Ones 83 

A Sainted Roman Catholic - - - - - - 90 

Reading the Appointments 97 

Hints to Soul- Winners 103 

One Woman's Prayer ------- 107 

The Atheist Silenced 109 

A Touching Story of a Little Life 110 

A Man of Great Faith 114 

Praying for Fish - - - - - - - -120 

The House-Top Saint 122 

Startling Facts and Figures about Missions - 130 

The Experience of George Fox 137 

The Starless Crown 145 

A Double Cure 148 

Lead, Kindly Light 151 

Praying Johnny 152 



VI CONTENTS. 

Pagh 

The Judgment Day 161 

Prevailing Prayer - 164 

A Persecuting Husband Saved 169 

Eleven Hundred Testaments, etc. 170 

Exalted Piety 173 

The Moralist's Dream 178 

The Devil in Dry Places 182 

Archibald Boyle -------- 184 

Sanctified Nobility 193 

The Preacher and His Work 200 

How to Preach - - 209 

An Eminent Saint - 211 

A Vision of Hell 217 

How to Kill a Prayer-Meeting - - - - - 221 

How to Secure a Good Prayer-Meeting - 222 

A Powerful Revivalist - 225 

The Bridal Wine-Cup - - - - - -237 

Missed It at Last - 241 

A Sanctified Class-Leader - 243 

Incentives to Soul-saving Work 248 

A Test of Universalism ------- 251 

Correspondence between Rumseller, etc. - 252 

An Israelite Indeed -------- 255 

End of a Backslider 262 

The Harm of Novel Reading 265 

A Miser's Death 268 

A Methodist Boanerges 272 

The Leek-Seed Chapel 276 

Punctuality 283 

A Short Story 284 

Giants, not Dwarfs 289 

What Individual Effort Will Do 291 

The Great Destroyer - 297 

The Revival Needed - 301 

Remarkable Experience of a Spiritualist - 309 

Is the World Morally Improving ? etc. ..... 323 



REMARKABLE NARRATIVES. 



The Infidel Son. 

" I will never be guilty of founding my hopes for the 
future upon such a compiled mess of trash as is contained 
in that book (the Bible), mother. Talk of that's being tht 
production of an Infinite Mind ; a boy ten years of age, ii 
he was half-witted, could have told a straighter story, and 
made a better book, I believe it to be the greatest mest 
of lies ever imposed upon the public. I would rather gc 
to hell (if there is such a place) than have the name oi 
bowing to that impostor — Jesus Christ — and be dependent 
on His merits for salvation." . 

" Beware ! beware ! my son, ' for God is not mocked, 5 
although ' He beareth with the wicked long, yet he will not 
keep his anger forever.' And ' all manner of sin shall be 
forgiven men, except the sin against the Holy Ghost : 
which has no forgiveness.' And many are the examples, 
both in sacred and profane history, of men who have been 
smitten down in the midst of their sinning against that 
blessed Spirit." 

n y erv well, father, I'll risk all the cutting down that J 



(S REMARKABLE NARRATIVES. 

shall &et for cursing that book, and all the agonies con- 
nected therewith. Let it come, I'm not at all scared. " 

" Father, lay not this sin to his charge, for he 
knows not what he does." 

" Yes, I do know what I am about, and what I say — 
and mean it/' 

" John, do you mean to drive your mother raving dis- 
tracted ? Oh, my God ! what have I done that this dread- 
ful trial should come upon me in my old age ? " 

"Mother, if you do not want to hear me speak my 
sentiments, why do you always begin the subject 1 If you 
do not want to hear it, don't ever broach the subject again, 
for I never shall talk of that book in any other way." 

The above conversation took place between two fond 
parents and their only son, who was at home on a visit 
from college, and now was about to return. And the 
cause of this outburst was, the kind-hearted Christian 
parents had essayed to give him a few words of kind. 
admonition, which, alas ! proved to be the last. And the 
above were his last words which he spoke to them as he 
left the house. 

How anxiously those fond parents looked after him as 
though something told them that something dreadful 
would happen. What scalding tears were those that 
coursed their way down these furrowed cheeks ! Oh ! that 
they might have been put in the bottle of mercy ! Poor 
wretched young man, it had been better for him had the 
avalanche from the mountain crushed him beneath its 
deadly weight ere those words escaped his lips. Little did 
he think that He who said, " Honor thy father and 
mother," and, " He that hardeneth his heart, and stiffeneth 
his neck, shall suddenly be destroyed, and that without 



THE INFIDEL SON. 9 

remedy," was so soon going to call him to give an account 
for those words, so heart-rending to his aged parents, and so 
dreadful in the sight of a holy God. He had imbibed those 
dreadful principles from an infidel room-mate at college. 
Beware, young men, with whom you associate, lest you 
fall as did this unfortunate young man. 

John B left his home and hastened to the depot 

where he took the cars which were to bear him to M 

where he was in a few months to finish his studies. The 
whistle blew, and away swept the cars " across the 
trembling plain." But alas ! they had gone but a few 
miles, when the cars, coming round a curve in a deep cut, 
came suddenly upon an obstruction on the track, which 
threw the engine and two of the cars at once from the 
rails. As fate would seem to have it, the wicked son 

(John B ) was that moment passing between them. 

He was thrown in an instant from the platform, his left 
arm being broken, and his skull fractured by the fall ; and 
in an instant one of the wheels passed directly over both 
his legs near the body, breaking and mangling them in the 
most dreadful manner. Strange as it may seem, no one 
else was injured. The dreadful news soon reached his 
already grief -stricken parents; and ere long that beloved, 
yet ungrateful son, w-as borne back to them; not as he 
left, but lying upon a litter a poor, mangled, raving 
maniac. Why these pious parents were called to pass 
through this dreadful trial, He " whose ways are in the 
deep and past finding out," only knows ; except that by 
this sad example of His wrath many might be saved. 
Many skilful physicians were called, but the fiat of the 
Almighty had gone forth, and man could not recall it. 
When the news reached the college, his class-mates 



10 REMARKABLE NARRATIVES. 

hastened to see him. When they came, nature was fast 
sinking, but the immortal part was becoming dreadfully 
alive. Oh ! that heart-rending scene. His reason return- 
ing brought with it a dreadful sense of his situation. His 
first words were, and oh, may never mortal hear such a cry 
as that again upon the shores of time : 

" Mother ! I'm lost ! lost ! lost ! damned ! damned ! 
damned forever ! " and as his class-mates drew near to the 
bed, among whom was the one who had poisoned his mind 
with infidelity, with a dreadful effort he rose in the bed 

and cried, as he fixed his glaring eyes upon him : " J , 

you have brought me to this, you have damned my soul ! 
May the curses of the Almighty and the Lamb rest upon 
vour soul forever." 

xJ 

Then like a hellish fiend, he gnashed his teeth, and tried 
to get hold of him that he might tear him to pieces. Then 
followed a scene from which the strongest fled with horror. 
But those poor parents had to hear and see it all, for he 
would not suffer them to be away a moment. He fell back 
upon his bed exhausted, crying, " O mother ! mother, get 
some water to quench this fire that is burning me to 
death ; " then he tore his hair and rent his breast ; the 
fire had already begun to burn, the smoke of which shall 
ascend up forever and ever. And then again he cried, 
" mother, save me, the devils have come after me. 
O mother, take me in your arms, and don't let them 
have me." And as his mother drew near to him, he 
buried his face in that fond bosom which had nourished and 
cherished hi in, but, alas, could not now protect or shield 
from the storm of the Almighty's wrath, for he turned 
from her, and with an unearthly voice he shrieked, 
" Father! mother! father, save me ; thev come to drag my 



A minister's consecration. 11 

soul — my soul to hell." And with his eyes starting from 
their sockets, he fell back upon his bed a corpse. The 
spirit had fled — not like that of Lazarus, borne on the 
wings of a convoy of angels, but dragged by fiends to meet 
a fearful doom. May his dreadful fall prove a warning to 
those who would unwittingly walk in the same path. — 
Earnest Christian, September, 1667, 



A Minister's Consecration. 

At my request we went into his empty church, and sat 
down in the pulpit. I told him the sad story of all my 
past ; of rebellions, and wanderings, and ambitions ; of 
God's crosses and burdens upon me ; cf my unworthiness 
and nothingness, till the whole was unfolded. We agreed 
to a mutual consecration, and together knelt in prayer. 
He poured out his soul for me and my people, as for him- 
self and his own. Then I opened my heart to God. At 
the very outset he took my soul into his hands, and bore 
me up to the Presence of ineffable glory. Through this, 
the spirit of His Son, with a clearness and definiteness of 
tone that spake with power in my heart and through my 
lips, asked me for each and every one of my life's cherished 
treasures : Will you give up to me your beloved wife, for 
me to take her from you if I will, by separation or death? 
Will you put your children, not their bodies only, but 
their minds, into my hands, and be willing to have them 
know nothing, and be nothing, if that shall glorify me? 
Will you employ all your time, and devote all your talent^, 
even the smallest, and seemingly the most useless, to my 



12 REMARKABLE NARRATIVES. 

service? Will you resign, your reputation, personal and 
professional, to me, so that, if I require, you may be dis- 
graced, contemned, even by your friends and brethren as 
by the world ? Will you part with your people, be ready 
to suffer reproach from them, and be discarded by the most 
attached ? Will you yield to me your few possessions — 
your books and your home, that you may become destitute 
and shelterless ? All, all, all, will you now and forever- 
more, without condition, without reservation, without any 
expectation of earthly good, without any return but my own 
life, consecrate thus yourself and your all to me ? Ah, Lord, 
how those questions came with searching, sifting power ! 
They burnt into my bones ; they ate my flesh ; they flayed 
my heart. I plead with God, and reasoned with Him at 
every step, to let me keep but one gift. " No ! all or 
none ! " I yielded all, and He took all. Oh, in that hour I 
felt like an outcast seaman, left on a desert island in mid- 
~>cean ! Inwardly I suffered the loss of all things much 
nore keenly than if outwardly they had been in reality 
baken away; for then I had still retained the affection and 
anticipation of them. But now all ties of life were broken, 
all interests of time lost, all joys of earth quenched. God's 
great hand seemed driven into my breast ; His fingers 
grappled my heart, and twined with its inmost fibres. 
Then I felt as if He had torn it out, and held it up, 
bleeding at every pore, and quivering to its centre, to 
scathe and peel it, to cut it into shreds, to blow it all away. 
I had no heart of nature left. When this was done, the 
voice said, "Go now and preach my Gospel, baptizing men 
with truth and love, in power." In that hour my future 
spread before me ; my path of duty lay plain, and my 
mission henceforth was definite to my view. In that hour 



A minister's consecration. 13 

I saw before me in the world only tribulations, sneers, 
censures, oppositions ; but in Christ I beheld inwardly 
truth, love, and divine glory as mine. That was the 
" sealing of the Spirit." .Under that process, a fiery ordeal 
indeed, I cried like a babe torn from its mother's heart. I 
sobbed like an orphan at the grave of both parents. I 
shrieked like a wounded frame under the surgeon's blade. 
That was the "death of nature," begun at least, if not 
completed ; the serpent's head was crushed, his fang was 
bruised, and his life was smothered, though his form might 
coil, and his tail rattle till the sundown of life. All hopes, 
all ambitions, all interests, all affections — everything of 
life — then stripped off, passed completely into God's hands. 
That was the " inward crucifixion" — "the circumcision of 
the heart." The will of self then fell into the will of God, 
as a rain-drop or snow-flake falls into the sea, and becomes 
a part of its current. 

Thus began the union of the human soul with the divine 
nature. What were the results of all this 1 Let others 
speak of those external to myself. Nothing do I see to 
glory in or to commend. Only of that which is within can 
I tell, and that imperfectly. At first I felt as if a besieged 
city, overcome and prostrate, lay in my life, amid ruins ; 
as if a dissected frame were mine, yet intensely alive and 
sensitive to every touch of evil, every word of error. Men 
frowned, and I wept ; lips cursed, and I warned. One 
thing was still needed after that burning, the anointing of 
love, the oil of God, to soothe the seared humanity. It 
came slowly ; out of the dark sepulchre the smitten frame 
rose ; into the sad, broken heart life began to breathe. 
From the scattered fragments of the old, God built up the 
new Jerusalem, a temple within more glorious than the 



14 REMARKABLE NARRATIVES. 

first. Physically, the extremities of ray frame were still 
endowed with what seemed superhuman strength, yet at 
the centre, in the heart's place, all was vacancy and weak- 
ness, as if a sword had there divided me in twain. In- 
tellectually, thought was quick and intensified, conceptions 
of truth were clear and strong, speech was fuller and truer; 
only the old habitudes of mind hampered the utterance. 
The former poetic and ornate sentences, which gave pleas- 
ure to the earthly taste, with just enough truth in them to 
save from damnation, were gone to ashes, were burned up 
as hay, wood, and stubble. In their place, plain speech, 
simple thought, yea, even sometimes common-place expres- 
sion, entered, displeasing to minds who think that popularity 
and success with ministers depend upon beauty and not upon 
truth. Preaching became and now is attractive and glorious ! 
The Sabbaths come not often enough. Study, and prayer, 
and converse on religious themes are intense delight unceas- 
ingly. The interests of earth excite but little ; it is child's 
play to talk of or attend to them. Time is a shortened 
duration, in which all the energies must be enlisted to the 
utmost. 

Oh, it is a glory thus to live ! I never knew before what 
that term " glory " meant. It has been like the flashings 
of a rocket- wheel, expiring in the moment that it shines. 
Now it is the pathway of suns, the sweep of comets through 
my soul's firmament. Night and day God realizes himself 
to my soul. Spiritually, this life is indeed beyond descrip- 
tion : truly, its peace passes understanding ; its joy is 
unspeakable. Amid trials, tests of faith and sincerity, 
which God has brought to me over and over again ; by 
seeming death agonies of my beloved ; by insults to my 
face, and slanders behind my back \ and by desertions and 



a minister's consecration. 15 

distresses multiplied and severe, I am still kept sustained 
by all-sufficient grace, with the harmonies of God's truth, 
the great choruses of His promises in my soul, with the 
pulsations of love in deepening tides beating evermore into 
my central life. God be praised ! The tempter comes, 
hisses with hate, allures with smiles, assails with question- 
ings. In vain ! Knowing the victory is sure, though the 
battle is keen, I am never overwhelmed. Blessed be God, 
who causeth me to triumph ! Though weaknesses, defects, 
and infirmities abound ; though ignorance and failure and 
difficulty retard, the step is progressive, the movement 
upward. 

How can I unfold all the sweet, transcendent blessings 
of this new life in Christ 1 Dark passions, appetites, and 
propensities ; keen bitterness and vain suspicions ; all the 
host of inner evils that before only cowed under the foot 
of will or the frown of truth ; that slept amid worldly 
peace, but were wakened in power at the touch of tempta- 
tion ; where are they ? God only knows. He has taken 
them in hand, making the wolf dwell with the kid, the 
leopard with Ihe lamb, the calf, the young lion, and the 
fatling together, and the little child Jesus leads them. 
God shall use them all for His glory. I aspire after no ap- 
plause of men ; it is as painful now as once it was pleasing. 
I shrink from sight. Only by the definite will of God I 
give this record. Like Abraham I take this only and 
beloved child of my heart to the top of Moriah, where, 
bound on the altar, a knife of earth in my own hand may 
slay it, if God so will. Whatever He commands, I obey, 
though it be to stand in the fire with the three. Ah ! I 
know that the form of the fourth will be there, and that 
the smell of fire, even, shall not be found upon me. If God 



16 II EM ARK ABLE NARRATIVES. 

be with me, who can be against me ? If Christ be my all^ 
how can I need more 1 No ! the world may take from me 
all its own ; I claim and need it not. The church, yet 
half-born, in the twilight of the valley may grope and dose; 
may cast the spawn and slime of its earth-life along my 
path ; my soul shall be cleansed therefrom by the ever- 
cleansing blood of Him who walked that path before ; my 
feet shall tread the air as though they were wings, and the 
mountain-tops only shall be my stepping-stones of glory, 
my ascension ladder to the mid-heaven of God's great city. 
There and thence shall I cry, " O Church of God ! O 
souls on whose lintel £he blood of Christ is sprinkled, be ye 
wholly cleansed ! 2non, arise ! Israel, come out of Egypt ; 
pass from the wilderness ; possess the land of rest in the 
blaze of God's shekinah, and shout, ' Enter thou, O, Lord, 
with us and dwell in thy Temple evermore. Amen !' " — 
Experience of Rev. Henry Belden. 



The Awful End of a Backslider. 

The following is a short account of the life and death of 
William Pope, of Bolton, in Lancashire. He was at 
one time a member of the Methodist Society, and was a 
saved and happy man. His wife, a devoted saint, died 
triumphantly. After her death his zeal for religion 
declined, and by associating with backslidden professors 
he entered the path of ruin. His companions even pro- 
fessed to believe in the redemption of devils. William 
became an admirer of their scheme, a frequenter with them 
of the public-house, and in time a common drunkard. 



THt: AWFUL END OF A BACKSLIDER. 17 

He finally became a disciple of Thomas Paine, and 
associated himself with a number of deistical per- 
sons at Bolton, who assembled together on Sundays to 
confirm each other in their infidelity. They amused 
themselves with throwing the Word of God on the floor, 
kicking it around the room, and treading it under their 
feet. God laid his hand on this man's body, and he was 
seized with consumption. 

Mr. Rhodes was requested to visit William Pope. He 
says : " When I first saw him he said to me, ' Last night I 
believe I was in hell, and felt the horrors and torment of 
the damned ; but God has brought me back again, and 
given me a little longer respite. The gloom of guilty 
terror does not sit so heavy upon me as it did, and I have 
something like a faint hope that, after all I have done, 
God may yet save me.' After exhorting him to repentance 
and confidence in the Almighty Saviour, I prayed with 
him and left him. In the evening he sent for me again. 
I found him in the utmost distress, overwhelmed with 
bitter anguish and despair. I endeavored to encourage 
him. I spoke of the infinite merit of the great Redeemer, 
and mentioned several cases in which God had saved the 
greatest sinners, but he answered, ' No case of any that 
has been mentioned is comparable to mine. I have no 
contrition ; I cannot repent. God will damn me ! I 
know the day of grace is lost. Gjd has sail of such as 
are in my case, " I will laugh at your calamity, and mock 
when your fear cometh." I said, * Have you ever known 
anything of the mercy and love or God?' ' Oh, yes,' he 
replied; ' many years ago I truly repented and sought 
the Lord and found peace and happiness.' I prayed with 
him after exhorting him to seek the Lord, and had great 



18 REMARKABLE NARRATIVES. 

hopes of his salvation ; he appeared much affected, and 
begged I would represent his case in our Society and 
pray for him. I did so that evening, and many hearty 
petitions were put up for him." 

Mr. Barraclough gives the following account of what he 
witnessed. He says : "I went to see William Pope, and 
as soon as he saw me he exclaimed, ' You are come to see 
one who is damned forever/ I answered, ' I hope not ; 
Christ can save the chief of sinners.' He replied, 'I have 
denied Him, I have denied Him ; therefore hath He cast 
ma off forever ! I know the day of grace is past, gone — 
gone, never more to return ! ' I entreated him not to be 
too hasty, and to pray. He answered, ' I cannot pray ; 
my heart is quite hardened. I have no desire to receive 
any blessing at the hand of God,' and then cried out, 
1 Oh, the hell, the torment, the fire that I feel within me ! 
Oh, eternity ! eternity ! To dwell forever with devils and 
damned spirits in the burning lake must be my portion, 
and that justly ! ' On Thursday I found him groaning 
under the weight of the displeasure of God. His eyes 
rolled to and fro ; he lifted up his hands, and with 
vehemence cried out, ' Oh, the burning flame, the hell, 
the pain I feel ! I have done, done the deed, the horrible, 
damnable deed ! ' I prayed with him, and while I was 
praying he said with inexpressible rage, ' I will not have 
salvation at the hand of God ! No, no ! I will not ask it 
of Him ! ' After a short pause he cried out, ' Oh, how I 
long to be in the bottomless pit — in the lake which 
burneth with fire and brimstone ! ' The day following I 
saw him again. I said, ' William, your pain is inex- 
pressible.' He groaned, and with a loud voice cried out, 
' Eternity will explain my torments. I tell you again, I 



THE AWFUL END OF A BACKSLIDER. 19 

am damned. I will not have salvation. 5 He called me to 
him as if to speak to me, but as soon as I came within 
his reach he struck me on the head with all his might, 
and gnashing his teeth, cried out, l God will not hear your 
prayers.' At another time he said, ' I have crucified the 
Son of God afresh, and counted the blood of the covenant 
an unholy thing ! Oh, that wicked and horrible deed of 
blaspheming against the Holy Ghost ! which I know I 
have committed. ' He was often heard to exclaim, * I want 
nothing but hell ! Come, O devil, and take me ! ' At 
another time he said, ' Oh, what a terrible thing it is! 
Once I might, and would not ; now I would and must 
not.' He declared that he was best satisfied when cursing. 
The day he died, when Mr. Rhodes visited him, and 
asked the privilege to pray once more with him, he cried 
out with great strength, considering his weakness, ' Xo ! ' 
and passed away in the evening without God." 

Backslider, do you know you are in danger of the fires 
of hell ? Do you know you are fast approaching the 

" Line by us unseen 

That crosses every path, 
That marks the boundary between 
God's mercv and His wrath " 1 

You are, and unless you turn quickly, you with William 
Pope will be writhing in hell through all eternity. God 
says, " The backslider in heart shall be filled with his 
own ways." But He says again, " Return, ye back- 
sliding children, and I will heal your backslidings." Oh, 
come back and be healed before God shall say of yo-~, 
" He is joined to his idols, let him alone." — Sel. 



20 REMARKABLE NARRATIVES. 

Eternity — Where ? 

A young man was working alone in a large room in which 
was a big clock, the loud ticking of which seemed to frame 
itself into the words, " Eternity ! — where ! " Unable to 
endure any longer the reflections thus awakened, he arose 
from his stool and stopped the clock ; but the question, 
"Eternity! — where?" still so haunted him, that he 
threw down his work, and hurrying home, determined that 
he would not allow anything to engage his thoughts till he 
could satisfactorily answer that searching question, 
" Eternity ! — where 1 ' ; 

u Eternity ! — where 1 " It floats in the air ; 

Amid clamor or silence it ever is there ! 

The question so solemn — " Eternity ! — where ? "' 

" Eternity ! — where 1 *' Oh 1 " Eternity ! — where ! " 
With redeemed ones in glory ! or fiends in despair 1 
With one or the other — " Eternity ! — where ¥ " 

" Eternity ! — where ! " Oh ! how can you share 
The world's giddy pleasures, or heedlessly dare 
Do aught till you settle — " Eternity ! — where ?" 

l< Eternity ! — where 1 " Oh ! friend have a care ; 
Soon God will no longer His judgment forbear ; 
This day may decide your — " Eternity ! — where ? " 

" Eternity ! — where ! " Oh ! " Eternity ! — where 1 ? ' 

Friend, sleep not, nor take in the world any share, 

Till you answer this question, "Eternity! — where?" 

Reader : Thy time on earth is short. Each closing 
year, each setting sun, each tick of yonder clock, is 



ETERNITY — WHERE ? 21 

shortening thy days on earth, and swiftly, silently, but 
surely carrying thee on — on to Eternity and to God. 
The year, the day, the hour, the -moment, will soon arrive 
that will close thy life on earth, and begin thy song in 
Heaven, or thy wail in Hell. No future hour shall come 
to bring thee back to earth again, thou art there forever — 
for Eternity. 

To-day thy feet stand on Time's sinking sand \ to-morrow 
the footprints remain, but thou art gone — where 1 Into 
Eternity. 

To-day thy hands are busy at work, thine eyes are 
beholding, thy mind is thinking, thou art planning for the 
future. To-morrotv all is still ; the folded arm, the closed 
eye remain, but thou art gone— gone to Eternity. Others 
were once busy as thou art, healthy as thou art. thought- 
less as thou art ; they are gone — gone to Eternity. The 
merry voice, the painted clown, the talented artist, whose 
presence made the theatre and the pantomime an attraction 
for thee, are gone ; they are removed far from the region 
of fiction to that of reality — the reality of Eternity. The 
shrewd merchant whose voice was so familiar to thee on 
the crowded Exchange is hushed, he buys and sells, no 
more— he has entered Eternity. 

And, reader, thine oivn turn to enter Eternity will 
shortly come. Ask thyself honestly, " Am I prepared for 
Eternity?" Give thy conscience time to answer; listen, 
it speaks to thee to day, drown not its voice lest it speak- 
to thee no more. Let the Heaven and the Heli of the 
future stand before thee in all their reality ; one of these 
must be thin** Etprna 1 . dwelling-place, and to-day- is the 
time to make thy choice. To-morrow may be too late 
— one day behind time. Which art thou living for ' 
Which art thou travelling to '? 



22 REMARKABLE NARRATIVES. 

To go from the haunts of sin, debauchery, and vice, to 
the presence of God and the Lamb — impossible ; from the 
crowd of the condemned, and the race for gold and gain, to 
the song of the redeemed and the crown of glory. ISTo, 
never ! Except a man be born again he cannot see the 
Kingdom of God. Reader, hast thou been born again ? If 
so, well ; but if .not, the horrors of an Eternal Hell are 
awaiting thee, and to-day thou art nearer its unquenchable 
flame than thou hast ever been before. 

Halt ! Why will you meet God with an unsaved* soul 1 
He wills it not. To-day He pleads. Turn ye, turn ye ! 
Why will ye die ? 

"To-night may be thy latest breath, 
Thy little moment here be done ; 

Eterncd woe, ' the second death,' 
Awaits the Christ-rejecting one, 

Thine awful destiny foresee, 

Time ends, and then ' Eternity? " 

—J. R. 



Dying Testimonies. 

The following are a fow death-be i testimonies of noted 
infidels : Gambetta. the late President of the French 
Republic, was an atheist He is reported to have s*'id, 
just before he died : "I urn lost. It is useless to attempt 
to conceal it. But I have sufTere 1 so much, it will be a 
deliverance. ' 

"Give me more laudanum, that I may not think of 
eternltv." — Mirabeau 



DYING TESTIMONIES. 23 

"Oh, the insufferable pangs of hell ! Oh, eternity ! for- 
ever and forever." — Xewport. 

" I am abandoned by God and man. I shall go to hell." 
— Voltaire. 

" Hell is a refuge, if it hide me from thy frown." — 
Altamont. 

"I would gladly give thirty thousand pounds to have it 
proved there is no hell." — Charteres. 

" Stay with me, for God's sake. I cannot bear to be 
left alone." — Pai-te. 

" Soul, what will become of thee ? " — Mazarin. 

So died hundreds of others, including Hume, the phi- 
losopher, and Gibbon, the historian. 

Let the reader contrast the above expressions of horror 
and despair with the following shouts of victory from 
dying saints : 

" I am in perfect peace, resting alone on the blood of 
Christ. I find this amply sufficient to enter the presence 
of God with."— Trotter. 

•'I am sweeping through the gates, washed in the blood 
of the Lamb." — Rev. Alfred Cookman. 

" I see nothing terrible in death : IVe no fears. I 
know in w T hom I have believed." — Brooks. 

" As sure as He ever spake to me in His Word, His 
Spirit witnesseth to my heart, saying, i Fear not.' " — 
Rutherford. 

11 Oh, for a ministry devoted to the salvation of souls ! 
I commit myself to the Saviour of sinners." — Page. 

"I am happy as I can be on earth, and as sure of glory 
as if I was there. Here goes an unprofitable servant." — 
William Grimshaiv. 



24 REMARKABLE NARRATIVES. 

" Oh, the preciousness of faith ! 1 have finished my 
course. My pilgrimage is ended. Oh, thou Friend of 
sinners, take thy poor old friend home! v — Torial Joss. 

" Tell my friends in Barbadoes that I die happy in God." 
— Daniel Graham. 

" I am a witness that the blood of Christ does cleanse 
from all sin. Oh, the goodness of God to a poor sinner ! 
The Lord has finished His work ; has cleansed and filled me 
with His fulness. Oh, what a weight of glory that will be, 
since thy weight of grace, O Lord, is now so great ! Jesus 
is come ! — Duncan Wright. 

"I am happy, I am happy ! For the last four days my 
soul has constantly been iu a state of inward glory. 1 
have done with prayer now ; I can love, I can praise, but 
I cannot pray. Now, Lord, lettest thy servant depart in 
peace, for mine e} T es have seen thy salvation." — John 
Valton. 

li When I get to glory I will make heaven ring with my 
voice, and wave my palms over the heads of the saints, 
crying victory ! victory in the blood of the Lamb ! " — John 
Pa?' sons. 

" All is well, all is well ! "— William Hunter. 

" He whom I have served for nearly fifty years will not 
forsake me now. Glory to God and the Lamb forever and 
ever ! Amen." — Alexander Mather. 

" Hark ! Do you not hear ? They are come up for me. 
I am ready. Stop ; say nothing but Glory ! glory ! " — . 
Pearl Dickinson. 

u I know I am dying, but my death-bed is a bed of 
roses ; I have no thorns planted upcn my dying pillow. 
Heaven is already begun; everlasting life is now. I die a 



A BURX1NG AND A SHINING LIGHT. 2o 

safe, easy, happy death. Thou, my God, art present ; I 
know, I feel thou art. Precious Jesus ! Glory be to God ! " 
- — John Paivson. 

" Victory ! victory through the bloo 1 of the Lamb ! '' — 
George Shad ford. 

"I feel Christ to be my rock, my strength, my rest, ray 
hope, my joy, my all in all." — Thomas Rutherford. 

11 Oh, how this soul of mine longs to be gone, like a bird 
out of its cage, to the realms of bliss ! Oh, that some 
guardian angel might be commissioned, for I long to be 
absent from the body."— John Fletcher. 

"Glory to Gol in the height of His divinity ! Glory to 
God in the depth of His humanity ! Glory to God in His 
all-sufficiency ! Into His hands I commend my spirit." — 
Ed/car I Per rone t. 

" My hope is joyous, glory to Christ ! " — Richard Reece. 

" Christ Jesus the Saviour of sinners and life of the 
dead. I am going to glory. Farewell, sin ! Farewell, 
death ! Praise the Lord ! " — Robert Newton. 

"The best of all is, God is with us. Farewell ! Fare- 
well ! " — John Wesley. 



A Burning and a Shining Light. 

In describing the character of that eminently devoted 
minister of the Gospel, Rev. E. Payson, his biographer 
says : 

The Bible was wibh him the subject of close, critical, 
persevering, and for a time, almost exclusive attention, his 
reading being principally confined to such writings as would 



20 REMARKABLE NARRATIVES. 

assist in its' elucidation, and unfold its literal meaning. In 
this manner he studied the whole of the inspired Yolume, 
from beginning to end, so that there was not a verse on 
which he had not formed an opinion. This is not asserted 
at random. Before he commenced preaching, he made it 
his great object to know what the Bible taught on every 
subject, and with this purpose, investigated every sentence 
in so far as to be able to give an answer to every man who 
should ask a reason of it. 

In this way he acquired an unparalleled readiness to 
meet every question on every occasion, whether proposed 
by a caviller, or a conscientious inquirer, which it is well 
known, he usually did in a manner as satisfactory as it 
often was unexpected. The advantages hence derived 
were, in his view, beyond all computation. It secured for 
him the unlimited confidence of people in the common 
walks of life, as " a man mighty in the Scriptures." It 
gave him great influence with Christians of other denomi- 
nations. It enabled him to confound and silence gain- 
sayers when they could not be convinced, as well as to 
build up the elect of God in their most holy faith. It 
furnished him, too, with ten thousand forms of illustra- 
tion, or modes of conveying to ordinary minds the less 
obvious truths with which he was conversant in the exercise 
of his ministry. . 

But there is another part of his example more difficult 
to imitate than the one just sketched. He prayed without 
ceasing. Aware of the aberrations to which the human 
mind is liable, he most earnestly sought the guidance and 
control of the Holy Spirit. He felt safe nowhere but at 
the throne of grace. He may be said to have studied 
theology on his knees. Much of his time he spent literally 



A BURNING AND A SHINING LIGHT. 27 

prostrated, with the Bible open before him, pleading the 
promises — " I will send the Comforter and when he, the 
Spirit of truth is come, he will guide you into all truth." 
No man ever strove harder to "mortify the flesh with the 
affections and lusts." It is almost incredible what abstin- 
ence and self-denial he voluntarily underwent, and what 
tasks he imposed on himself that he might " bring every 
thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ." 

It was not long before Mr. Payson felt his need of entire 
sanctification. The risings of inbred sin continually troub- 
led him. In his diary he wrote : " Felt for the first time in 
my life, what the Apostle meant by 'groanings which 
cannot be uttered,' and my desires after holiness were so 
strong that I was in bodily pain, and my soul seemed as if 
it would burst the bands which confined it to the body." 
It was not until some years after this, however, that he 
entered into the experience of his long-desired blessing. 

He was now recommended to the churches as a preacher, 
and he at once began declaring "the unsearchable riches 
of Christ." He entered upon his work with fear and 
trembling. His labors, however, were so acceptable, so 
much accompanied with the divine unction, that he was 
sent for from every direction. God gave him many souls 
and Christians were built up in righteousness and true 
holiness. Subsequently he became the regularly settled 
pastor of the Congregational Church in Portland, and was 
ordained to the ministry. In this capacity he labored 
most faithfully. It was his constant aim to bring sinners 
to repentance, and to lead his flock into all the fulness of 
God. He was a terror to evil-doers, and by his fearless 
denunciation of sin, he incurred the displeasure of many. 
Though his health soon began to fail him, lie continued to 



28 REMARKABLE NAKRA'l IVES. 

advance in ths divine life. To a friend he wrote : "They 
tell me they are certain that I shall not continue with them 
long. But the Lord's will be done. Welcome life, 
welcome death, welcome anything from His hand. The 
world — oh, what a bubble — what a trifle it is ! Friends are 
nothing, life is nothing; Jesus, Jesus is all ! Oh, what will 
it be to spend an eternity in seeing and praising Jesus ! to 
see Him as He is, to be satisfied with His likeness ! Oh, I 
long, L pant, I faint with desire to be singing, ' Worthy is 
the Lamb ' — to be extolling the riches of sovereign grace — 
to be casting the crown at the feet of Christ ! ' ; 

On the 8th of May, 1811, Mr. Pay son was married to 
Ann Louisa Shipnian, of New Haven, Conn. ; a woman of 
kindred piety, and whose energy and firmness of character, 
connected with other estimable accomplishments, proved to 
be a true " helpmeet " and contributed much to his best 
welfare. As the result of having taken this step he was 
none the less devoted to God : but rather became increas- 
ingly active and useful. Mr. Cummings says : " To his 
ardent and persevering prayers must no doubt be ascribed, 
in a great measure, his distinguished and almost uninter- 
rupted success ; and next to these, the undoubted sincerity 
of his belief in the truths which he inculcated. His 
language, his conversation, and whole deportment were 
such as brought home and fastened on the minds of his 
hearers, the conviction that he believed, and therefore 
spoke. " 

Glorious revivals of religion attended his incessant 
labors. Yet he felt himself exceedincd v insufficient for the 
work of a pastorate. To a brother minister he wrote : 
" No man is fit to rise up and labor until he is made will- 
ing to lie still and suffer as long as his Master pleases.' 5 



A BURNING AND A SHINING LIGHT. 29 

His biographer says : " Economy was a very noticeable 
feature in his character. It was a principle with him to 
spend nothing merely for ornament. The money which 
qame into his possession he regarded as a talent for which 
he was accountable ; and so scrupulous was he as to the 
disposition which he made of it. that he is thought to have 
regarded some things as forbidden luxuries which would 
have been for his welfare. In his furniture, in his apparel, 
and that of his household, and in the provisions of his 
table there Avas a plainness and a simplicity well becoming 
a man professing and teaching godliness. He did not save 
to hoard, but to bless others. He did not love money for 
its own sake ; and so obvious to all was his disinterested- 
ness, that, so far as is known, he never fell under the 
charge or even the suspicion of being avaricious. He had 
declined purchasing an article of convenience for the family 
one morning, because, as it was not absolutely necessary, he 
thought they could not afford it. The same day he gave 
ten dollars to a worn in in reduced circumstances, who called 
at his house." 

The year 18 1G was characterized by a most remarkable 
outpouring of the Holy Spirit on his people. Many were 
c ,ruly born again and added to his church. His congrega- 
tion was also continually enlarging. 

Bowdoin College conferred upon him in. the year 1821 
the degree of Doctor of Divinity. But in a letter to his 
mother he says : " I beg you not to address your letters to 
me by that title, for I shall never make use of it." His 
health becoming worse, he was at last compelled to resign 
his pastorate, although in the midst of a flourishing revival. 
Yet his "inner man was renewed day by day." To his 
sister he wrote : •' Were 1 to adopt the figurative language 



30 REMARKABLE NARRATIVLS. 

" ' i. 

r - tr % 

of Bunyan, I might date thisf letter from the Land of 
Beulah, of which I have been for seme weeks a happy 
inhabitant. The Celestial City is full in my view. Its 
glories beam upon me, its breezes fan me, its odors are 
wafted to me, its sounds strike upon my ears, and its spirit 
is breathed into my heart. Nothing separates me from it 
but the River of Death, which now appears but as an insig- 
nificant rill that may be crossed at a single step whenever 
God shall give permission. The Sun of Righteousness has 
been gradually drawing nearer and nearer, appearing 
larger and brighter as He approached, and now He fills the 
whole hemisphere ; pouring forth a flood of glory in which 
I seem to float like an insect in the beams of the sun ; 
exulting, yet almost trembling while I gaze on this exces- 
sive brightness, and wondering, with unutterable wonder, 
why God should deign thus to shine upon a sinful worm." 

Again he writes : "I have been all my life like a child 
whose father wishes to fix his undivided attention. At 
first the child runs about the room — but his father ties up 
his feet : he then plays with his hands, until they likewise 
are tied. Thus he continues to do till he is completely 
tied up ; then, when he can do nothing else he will attend 
to his father. Just so God has been dealing with me to 
induce me to place my happiness in Him alone. But I 
blindly continued to look for it here, and God has kept 
cutting off one source of enjoyment after another till I find 
that I can do without them all, and yet enjoying more 
happiness than ever in my life before." He was asked, 
"Do you feel reconciled?" " Oh, that is too cold I 
rejoice I triumph ! and this happiness will endure as long 
as God himself, for it consists in admiring and adoring Him. 
I can find no words to express my happiness. I seem to 



A BURNING AND A SHINING LIGHT. 31 

be swimming in a river of pleasure, which is carrying me 
on to the great fountain. It seems as if all the fountains 
of heaven were opened, and all its fulness and happiness, 
and T trust no small portion of His benevolence, is come 
down into my heart. 

" It has often been remarked that people who have been 
into the other world cannot come back to tell us what they 
have seen ; but I am so near the eternal world that I can 
see almost as clearly as if I were there ; and I see enough 
to satisfy myself at least of the truth of the doctrines which 
I have preached. I do not know that I should feel at all 
surer had I been really there." 

A friend with whom he had been conversing on his ex- 
treme bodily sufferings and his high spiritual joys, re- 
marked : "I presume it is no longer incredible to you, if 
ever it was, that martyrs should rejoice and praise God in 
the flames and on the rack." " No," said he, " I can easily 
believe it. I have suffered twenty times — yes, to speak 
within bounds — twenty times as much as I could in being 
burnt at the stake, while my joy in God so abounded as to 
render my sufferings not only tolerable, but welcome. Th i 
sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be com- 
pared with the glory which shall be revealed in us." 

To his wife he said : "Hitherto I have perceived God as 
a fixed star, bright indeed, but often intercepted by clouds; 
but now He is coming nearer and nearer, and spreads into 
a sun so vast and glorious that the sight is too dazzling for 
flesh and blood to sustain. I see clearly that all these same 
glorious and dazzling perfections, which now only serve to 
kindle my affections into a flame, and to melt down my 
soul into the same blessed image, would burn and scorch 
me like a consuming fire, if I were an impenitent sinner." 



32 REMARKABLE NARRATIVES. 

He died in great peace, October 22nd, 1827. 

So strong was his love for preaching, his interest in the 
salvation of his flock, that he directed a label to be attached 
to his breast on which should be inscribed these words — 
Remember the icords which I spake unto you while I was yet 
present with you ; that all who came to look at his corpse 
might read them, and by which he, being dead, still spake. 
These words, at the request of his affectionate flock, were 
engraved on the plate of the coffin and read by thousands 
on the day of his funeral. 



The Trial of Faith. 

That the trial of your faith, being much more precious 
than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, 
might be found unto praise and honor and glory at the 
appearing of Jesus Christ. (1 Peter i. 7.) 

1. What kind of faith does the Apostle refer to % It is 
not faith in men or in angels — not an intellectual assent to 
the truth of the Bible. It is the faith of the heart. A 
confidence and repose in Christ as our personal and present 
Saviour from all sin. It is a personal faith — "your 
faith." 

2. How is this faith tried ? By temptations, dis- 
couragements, opposition, persecution, misrepresentations, 
afflictions, poverty, prosperity, trials of various kinds, and 
by obedience. 

3. Why is this faith tested ? Saving faith is the founda- 
tion of all Christian experience. Though a Christian may 
be in a perfect tempest, if his faith in God remains 



TEE THIAL OF FAITH. 33 

unshaken he is perfectly safe. But if his faith fails, 
though he may have everything else he will be defeated 
and backslide. As faith, then, is that principle by which 
we live ; as so much depends on its exercise, no wonder the 
devil levels his heavy guns against it to weaken and 
destroy it. God, in His infinite love to our best interests 
and for the development and nourishment of our faith, per- 
mits it to be tried. Hence, the Apostle says, " Think it 
not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, 
as though some strange thing had happened unto you." 
In the time of Zeplianiah the prophet, in speaking of his 
ancient people God says, " I will also leave in the midst 
of thee an afflicted and poor people, and they shall trust in 
the name of the Lord." Daniel says, " Many shall be 
purified and made white and tried." It is necessary that 
our faith should be tested, in order that we may learn 
whether it has any flaws in it, or whether it has become 
weakened. When everything is smootli and easy-going, 
we cannot tell how our faith stands. The degree of feeling 
we may have is no criterion. It is one of the most uncer- 
tain things in the world. It is only by the hard knocks of 
trial we find out how strong or weak it is. Rutherford 
says, " I find it to be most true — that the greatest tempta- 
tion out of hell is to live without temptation. If waters 
should stand they would become stagnant and impure. 
Faith is the better for the free air, and for the sharp 
winter storm in its face. Grace withereth without adver- 
sity. The devil is but God's master fencer, to teach us 
how to handle our weapons." Says one, " If gold, though 
perishing, is yet tried with fire in order to test its genuine- 
ness and to remove the dross, how much more does your 
faith — which shall never perish — need to pass through a 
3 



34 REMARKABLE NARRATIVES. 

fiery trial to remove whatever is defective, and to test its 
genuineness and full value ? " 

4. Why is the trial of this faith more precious than of 
gold that perisheth 1 Because : 

(1) We get a deeper and richer experience. " The trial 
of your faith worketh patience." " But the God of all 
grace, who hath called us unto his eternal glory by Christ 
Jesus, after that ye have suffered awhile, make you perfect, 
stablish, strengthen, settle you." Is not this more precious 
than gold 1 Bunyan says, " Temptations, when we meet 
them at first, are as the lion that roared upon Samson ; 
but if we overcome them, the next time we shall find 
a nest of honey in them." 

(2) We become more useful and bring more glory to 
God. " He purgeth us that we may bring forth more 
fruit." He thus tried Job, Daniel, the Hebrew children, 
Paul, and hosts of others, and their after-life was more 
than ever conducive to the glory of God. Just when we 
think we can stand no more and are going to die under the 
pressure, is often the very time when we bear the best 
increase. " Gold does not increase or multiply by trial 
in the fir^ it rather grows less ; but faith is estab- 
lished, improved and multiplied. Gold, though it bear the 
fire, yet will perish with the world ; but faith never will." 
A certain writer has said, " There are more undeveloped 
physical and mental resources than have ever been brought 
to light, and made to bless and comfort the human race. 
The potentialities of mind and nature, we venture to say, 
are almost as infinite as the infinite God himself. We 
know not what powers we are in possession of until our 
capital has been drawn upon. We do not perceive the 
countless millions of stars above us until night has come 



THE TRIAL OF FAITH. b* 

and brought them out ; and pressure from without and 
from within but reveals the hidden forces of our nature. 
The man knows not the depth of a husband's love, and the 
joys to be reaped from the family circle, until the terrible 
messenger knocks at his home. We can accomplish more 
when we are under pressure than at another time, for then 
we but learn of our hitherto slumbering powers." 

Crush the daisy and it will send forth a sweeter fra- 
grance than ever. Bunyan was confined in the darkness 
of Bedford jail for twelve years, but what immense good 
has come of that long imprisonment. The poor, indigent, 
illiterate student fights against many odds, but these very 
difficulties only tend to develop the indomitable persever- 
ance within him. 

"The deluge that swept around Noah brought out the 
rainbow of promise. Abraham's offering up of Isaac made 
his seed as the stars of heaven, and as the sands upon the 
sea-shore. Jacob's halting thigh caused him to see God's 
face as the sun rose upon him. Joseph's prison was the 
doorway to Pharaoh's palace. Moses' grief over Israel's sin 
led God to speak to him face to face, as a man speaketh 
unto his friend. Job was stripped of all that he had, that 
in the end the Lord might give him twice as much as he 
had before. David was like a hunted partridge in the 
mountains, that he might become the sweet Psalmist of 
Israel to the saints of all succeeding generations. 
Manasseh's chain was worth more to him than Manasseh's 
crown. Daniel's captivity made him ruler over the whole 
province of Babylon. Esther's exposure to death saved a 
nation. Peter was girded and carried whither he would 
not, that he should glorify God. Paul's head fell beneath 
Nero's axe, that there might be placed upon it an unfading 



36 REMARKABLE NARRATIVES. 

chaplet ; and as an old Puritan writer has said, c the stones 
that came about Stephen's ears did but knock him closer 
to Christ.'" — Brookes, Mystery of Suffering, 

(3) The ultimate end " that it might be found unto praise 
and honor and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ." " If 
we suffer with him we shall also reign with him." " Our light 
afflictions, which are but for a moment, worketh out for us 
a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory." We 
shall ultimately be found tried stones, ready and safe to 
put in the heavenly temple. In the building of Solomon's 
temple no hewing and sawing were done where the sacred 
building was reared. All the stones, timber, etc., were 
prepared in other places, and brought in a finished state 
to the builders. Beloved, the hewing of the stones for the 
spiritual temple must be done here, that at the appointed 
time God may find us ready to be placed as living stones in 
that temple. Says one, " The temptations of Satan which 
he intended for their destruction, frequently become jewels 
to adorn the crowns of God's people before the eternal 
throne." Matthew Henry says : " Honor is properly that 
esteem and value which one has with another; and so God 
and man will honor the saints. Praise is the declaration 
of that esteem ; so Christ will commend His people in that 
day. Glory is that lustre wherewith a person so honored 
and praised shines in heaven." 

Pains, furnace heat, within me quivers, 
God's breath upon the flame doth blow, 

And all my heart within me shivers, 
And trembles in the fiery glow, 

And yet I whisper, " As God will ! " 

And in His hottest fire hold still. 



THE TRIAL OF FAITH. 37 

He comes and lays my heart, all heated, 

On His hard anvil, minded so 
Into His own fair shape to beat it, 

With His great hammer blow on blow, 
And still I whisper, " As God will," 
And at His heaviest blow hold still. 

He takes my softened heart and beats it, 

The sparks fly off at every blow, 
He turns it o'er and o'er and heats it, 

And lets it cool and makes it glow, 
Yet still I whisper, " As God will," 
And in His mighty hand hold still. 

Why should I murmur ? for the sorrow, 

Thus only longer lived would be ; 
The end may come, and will to-morrow, 

W 7 hen He has done His work in me. 
So I say, trusting, " As God will ! " 
And trusting, to the end, hold still. 

He kindles, for my profit purely, 

Affliction's fierce and glowing brand, 

And all His heaviest blows are surely 
Inflicted by a Master's hand. 

So I say, praying, " As God will ! " 

And trust in Him and suffer still. 

The Rev. J. II. Brookes, D.D., in his book, entitled 
Mystery of Suffering, relates the following 'striking 
incident : "A pastor often visited an old saint eighty-seven 
years of age, who for fifteen years was bed ridden and 
blind. She was usually very bright and cheerful but on 



38 REMARKABLE NARRATIVES. 

one occasion she told him that since his last visit she had 
been in terrible darkness. When he inquired how it came, 
she replied that she had been informed of the sudden death 
of a youthful and useful Christian lady, who was a near 
neighbor. She began to wonder why God spared her so 
long, when she was of no service to anyone, and then the 
thought darted into her mind that He had so many people- 
to look after He had forgotten her, and 6 Oh, the horror 
that rolled over my soul at this,' she exclaimed. l But you 
are out of the darkness now ; how did you get out ? ' he 
asked. ' There is but one way/ she answered, ' and that 
is by going to the Word. I remembered that the Lord 
Jesus declares all the hairs of our heads are numbered, and 
although I once had children of my own, whom I loved, I 
suppose, as much as most mothers love their children, and 
although I washed their faces for them, and brushed their 
hair many a time, I never thought enough of one of my 
children to count every hair on its head. Since my 
Father thinks enough of me to count every hair on my old 
grey head, I told the devil to go away and let me alone, 
and he has left me in peace.' " 



Father, Take My Hand. 

The way is dark, my Father ! Cloud on cloud 
Ts gathering thickly o'er my head, and loud 
The thunders roar above me. See, I stand 
Like one bewildered. Father, take my hand, 

And through the gloom 

Lead safely home 
Thy child. 



FATHER, TAKE MY HAM). 39 

The day goes fast, my Father ! And the night 
Is drawing darkly down. My faithless sight 
Sees ghostly visions. Fears a spectral band 
Encompass me. O Father, take my hand ! 

And from the night 

Lead up to light 
Thy child. 

The way is long, my Father ! And my soul 
Longs for the rest and quiet of the goal , 
While yet I sojourn through this weary land 
Keep me from wandering. Father, take my hand 

Quickly, and straight 

Lead to heaven's gate 
Thy child. 

The path is rough, my Father ! Many a thorn 
Has pierced me ; and my weary feet, a]l torn 
And bleeding, mark the way ; yet Thy command 
Bids me press forward. Father, take my hand, 

Then, safe and blest, 

Lead up to rest 
Thy child. 

The throng is great, my Father ! Many a doubt, 
And fear, and danger compass me about, 
And foes oppress me sore ; I cannot stand 
Or go alone. O Father, take my hand, 

And through the throng 

Lead safe along 
Thy child. 

The cross is heavy, my Father ! I have borne 
It long, and still do bear it. Let my worn 



40 REMARKABLE NARRATIVES. 

And faltering spirit rise to that blest land 
Where crowns are given. Father, take my hand, 

And reaching down, 

Lead to the crown 
Thy child. 



THE GRACIOUS ANSWER. 

The way is dark, my child ! But leads to light ; 
I would not have you always walk by sight ; 
My dealings now thou canst not understand, 
I meant it so ; but I would take thy hand, 

And through the gloom 

Lead safely home 
My child. 

The day goes fast, my child ! But is the night 
Darker to Me than day 1 In Me is light. 
Keep close to Me, and every spectral band 
Of fears shall vanish. I will take thy hand, 

And through the night 

Lead up to light 
My child. 

The way is long, my child ! But it shall be 
Not one step longer than is best for thee ; 
And thou sh alt know at last, when, thou shalt stand 
Safe at the goal, how I did take thy hand 

Quickly, and straightly 

Lead to heaven's gate 
My child. 



UNSEEN GUARDIANS. 41 

The path is rough, nry child ! But, oh ! how sweet 
"Will be the rest where weary pilgrims meet, 
When thou shalt reach the borders of that land 
To which I lead thee, as I take thy hand, 

And safe and blest 

With Me shall rest 
My child. 

The throng is great, my child ! But at thy side 
Thy Father walks ; then be not terrified, 
For I am with thee, I will thy foes command 
To let thee freely pass ; will take thy hand, 

And through the throng 

Lead safe along 
My child. 

The cross is heavy, my child. Yet there was One 
Who bore a heavier for thee — My Son, 
My well-beloved ! For Him bear thine, and stand 
With Him at last ; and from thy Father's hand, 

Thy cross laid down, 

Receive a crown 
My child.— Sel 



Unseen Guardians. 

C. G. Steinhofer, formerly of Germany, was a Christian, 
firm in faith, consistent in principle and practice, and, as 
a clergyman of the Lutheran community, very earnest and 
zealous in fulfilling what he considered to be the duties of 
his calling. These were often arduous and unpleasant, 
but he did not shrink from their performance. On one 



42 REMARKABLE NARRATIVES. 

occasion lie was informed that the chief man, the highest 
public officer in his district, was living in sin, to his own 
disgrace, to the inexpressible grief of his wife, to the 
sorrow of every really Christian citizen, and to the great 
scandal of the church there, of which he was a member. 
On receiving this information, this faithful guardian of the 
flock went at once to the offender. After mentioning the 
occasion of his visit, he said he had come, in the authority 
of his office, to bid him remove the public scandal he had 
given rise to, adding, " My Lord will require clean sheep of 
His shepherds, and as I am engaged in keeping this flock, 
I dare not suffer such doings as this in it." 

The man was irritated at this honest reproof and un- 
conditional condemnation of his wickedness, and told him 
if he meddled much more with him or his affairs, he would 
have him removed from the ministerial office. Steinhofer 
let him know that the fear of such a result would not 
deter him from the performance of the duty devolving on 
him from his station. 

A week passed by ; and as the offender had not abated 
the scandal, Steinhofer called upon him again. After 
expostulating with him, he plainly told him that if he did 
not manifest th it he intended to amend his evil ways, he 
should, on the morrow, publicly bring the matter before 
the congregation, when assembled for worship. This 
would clear him before the people of having any active or 
passive complicity in this wickedness ; and he added, he 
should then leave it with the Lord, who would prove that 
He would not be mocked. 

This honest rebuke, and even the pro-pect of a public 
exposure, did not induce the man to change his course. 
But to try to prevent Steinhofer from spreading the case 



UNSEEN GUARDIANS. 43 

before the congregation, he called upon him, before the 
meeting, with many threats, seeking to frighten him 
into silence. The pastor had counted the cost ; no fear of 
pecuniary loss or personal suffering could induce him to 
draw back from the performance of what he esteemed his 
duty. He did as he had promised, spread the case before 
the congregation, and requested their prayers that this 
iniquity should be removed from among them, and that it 
might not be laid to their charge. 

The rage of the public officer was so great that, in the 
insanity of passion, he determined to kill his faithful 
reprover. Knowing that on that afternoon Steinhofer 
would visit a sick member of his congregation, he deter- 
mined to waylay him and execute his wicked design. The 
road from the parsonage to the residence of the sick man 
passed through a small wood, in the recess of which, 
behind a tree, the intending murderer placed himself with 
a loaded gun. In due time the clergyman came in sight, 
but, to the dismay of the watcher, two men appeared to 
him to be with him, one on either side. This for that time 
baffled his intention ; but being determined to effect it, he 
concluded to do it when the visit was over, and therefore 
remained waiting in the wood. Steinhofer, after a short 
period, returned, but, to the surprise of his enemy, the two 
men 'who had appeared to accompany him as he went were 
still apparently beside him ; and thus he again passed 
safely through the wood, not knowing that it concealed an 
enemy. 

Perplexed in mind and uneasy in conscience, the officer 
felt an earnest desire to know who the men were whose 
presence had protected his intended victim. To obtain 
that knowledge he sent a servant-maid on some trivial 



44 REMARKABLE NARRATIVES. 

errand to the house of the minister, telling her to find out 
who the strangers were who accompanied him on his 
afternoon visit. She made the inquiry, and was told 
that he went out alone, and took nothing with him but his 
Bible, which he carried under his arm. This return to 
his question startled the inquirer more than ever. He 
immediately dispatched a messenger to the clergyman, 
demanding who those two men were who, one on his right 
and the other on his left side, accompanied him to visit 
the sick man. The messenger was also instructed to say 
that his master had seen them with his own eyes. 

C. G. Steinhofer, although he knew not what peril he 
had escaped, yet felt convinced that the Lord's hand was 
in the thing, and also that He had by His preserving 
providence, b?en round about him that day. He bade 
the servant tell his master that he knew of no man 
having accompanied him. "But," he added, "I am never 
alone ; the Lord whom I serve is always with me." This 
message, faithfully delivered by the servant, produced a 
powerful effect on the master. His conscience was 
alarmingly awakened. He immediately complied with 
the requisitions of duty, and the next morning, as a 
humble penitent, he called on his faithful reprover, with 
tears confessed his past crime, and also his wicked 
intention so providentially frustrated. The work of 
repentance did not stop here, but through the I ord's 
assisting grace this evil man amended his ways. — The 
Christian, Boston. 



HENRY MARTYN. 45 



Henry Martyn. 

In the year 1812 a lone traveller, passing through Eastern 
Asia Minor, died at Tokat. His dragoman even did not 
know his full name, but scratched something like it upon a 
rude slab, and went his way. The grave was soon covered 
by the sand from a mountain stream. They who buried him 
thought of him only as one of the millions who every year 
fall into forgotten graves. But this man was missed. 
Though but thirty-one years of age, he had struck the 
chord of heroic appreciation in England and America as 
almost no other man had. A statesman said : " His name 
is the one heroic name which adorns the annals of the 
English Church from the days of Elizabeth to our own." 
His grave was sought ; his body removed to a more public 
spot ; a handsome monument reared, and inscribed with 
his praise in four different languages. Lord Macaulay, 
with fine appreciation of the truly great in character 
coming from familiarity with the heroes of all ages, who 
thrills us with his lines on Horatius and Henry of 
Navarre, was affected to reverence by the story of this 
young man's life, and wrote this epitaph : 

" Here Martyn lies ! In manhood's early bloom 
The Christian hero found a pagan tomb ; 
Religion, sorrowing o'er her favorite son, 
Points to the glorious trophies which he won. 
Eternal trophies, not with slaughter red, 
Nor stained with tears by hopeless captives shed, 
But trophies of the cross. For that dear name 
Through every form of danger, death and shame, 
Onward he journeyed to a happier shore, 
Where danger, death and shame are known no more." 



46 REMARKABLE NARRATIVES. 

Henry Martyn was born in Cornwall, England, in 1781. 
At sixteen he entered Cambridge University. He was 
intensely ambitious, and was nettled because at the early 
examinations he took only the second position. But at 
twenty he graduated as Senior Wrangler, with the first 
honor. 

He could, however, apply his mind better than control 
his passionate nature. Angered one day he threw a large 
knife at a comrade, who dodged it, and let it stick quiver- 
ing in the wall, instead of in the intended victim's heart. 
He was self-willed, even to obstinacy and surliness to his 
father. No natural saint was he. 

His after saintliness was not due to development, but 
total change, point-blank conversion. Its occasion was the 
death of his father, and the thought that it was now too 
late to ask from those cold lips forgiveness for his undutifui 
conduct. He could only go to God for it. But, having o:^ce 
come before that throne, and felt upon his soul the shadow 
of God's condemnation for sin, all his pride was crushed ; 
having felt the light of God's countenance reconciled, his soul 
was ever after filled with gratitude and love. From that 
time Martvn was another man. That strong wilfulness 
became strong willingness, as he gave his whole being up 
to his Redeemer. He was ambitious still, but he had now 
an over-lord, even Christ. His favorite text was, 
" Seekest thou great things for thyself '? Seek them not, 
saith the Lord.' So thoroughly did he belong to Christ 
that selfish honors no longer pleased him. AY hen he 
graduated first in his class, he wrote : "I obtained my 
highest wishes, but was surprised to find I had grasped a 
shadow." His energy was not lessened, rather intensified, 
by having higher appeals, those of conscience and service, 



HENRY MARTYN. 47 

added to natural desire ; and his faculties were new-fired 
by his communion with the Holy Spirit. Yet he was not 
without tremendous temptations from his old ambition. 
For awhile he proposed to study law, " chiefly," he says, 
u because I could not consent to be poor for Christ's sake." 
But he did not know his newer self when he thought that 
way, and when the moment of decision came, he turned his 
back upon all prospects of secular gain, and sought the 
ministry. 

In 1805, Henry Martyn sailed for India. Nine months 
were consumed in the journey, which took him across to 
South America, and then around the Cape of Good Hope. 

Arriving in Calcutta he was felled by fever, and his 
weakened body became a source of discouragement, over- 
come only by his deathless devotion. The horrid rites of 
widow burning and devil worship were then practised. He 
said he " shivered as standing in the neighborhood of hell." 
English friends urged his remaining at Calcutta, where he 
would meet with countrymen, and could preach as much as 
he wished without danger, receiving a salary as army ohap- 
lain. But Martyn determined to go to the heathen beyond, 
to whom others would not go. 

For weeks he pushed his way in a little boat up the 
Ganges, during the day translating Scripture into Bengalee 
by the aid of his boatman, at night talking of Christ to the 
natives on the shore. Passing into new provinces, he 
found new dialects to be mastered. His rare scholarly 
habit and genius came to his help. At Dinapore we find 
this in his diary of a day : "Morning in Sanscrit; after- 
noon, Bahar dialect ; continued late at night writing on 
Parables in Bengalee. The wickedness and cruelty of 
wasting a moment when so many nations are waiting till I 



48 REMARKABLE NARRATIVES. 

do my work." He finds that he has use for Arabic, too, in 
dealing with Mohammedans, and therefore masters that 
tongue. Then the Persian language is studied. The man 
seems to have been a mingling of Max Muller and 
Livingstone. 

Through the glaring sun he traversed the sandy plains 
of the Ganges hundreds of miles to Cawnpore, fainting, 
fevered, with a terrible disease developing in his chest. He 
preached statedly to the soldiers in the barracks, and at 
times the poor natives would gather by the thousand in 
front of his door to receive his alms and hear his addresses. 
A strange fascination went out from his person to all who 
came in contact with him. A fellow English Christian, 
speaking of Mar- yn's ill health, said : "If I could make 
you live longer, I would give up any child I have, and 
myself into the bargain." 

Physical nature could not endure the strain of that 
intense spirit, and Martyn's condition necessitated his 
return to England. But he was not quite satisfied with 
the correctness of his Persian translation of the New 
Testament, and therefore proposed to put in an intermedi- 
ate journey to Persia to perfect it. Pale, emaciated, too 
weak to speak except in a low voice, he seemed to live only 
by force of soul. They beheld him " standing on the verge 
of another world, and ready to take his flight," rather than 
about to endure another earthly journey. 

His thirtieth birthday found him en route for Persia. In 
his journal he says : "I am now at the age when the 
Saviour of men began His ministry — when John the Baptist 
called a nation to repentance. Let me now think for my- 
self and act with energy. Hitherto I have made my youth 



HENRY MARTYN. 49 

and insignificance an excuse for sloth and imbecility ; now 
let me have a character and act for God." 

After several months he reached Persia. He was pros- 
trated by sunstroke. Recovering sufficient strength, he 
penetrated the country. The thermometer in June ranged 
from 120 degrees to 126 degrees. He existed only by 
wrapping himself in heavy blankets to exclude the heat, or 
wet blankets to temper it. So he traversed the plains. 
Then over the mountains where the cold at night was 
piercing, but with a fire in his head, his skin dry as a 
cinder, his pulse almost convulsive. 

Reaching Shiraz, the Persian seat of learning, he began 
a new translation of the Testament with the help of some 
intelligent Persian gentlemen. While doing this work he 
debated publicly with their great men, and wrote articles 
in reply to their chief books. Sharp arguments were some- 
times interspersed with brick-bats hurled at his head. 
Within the year his translation was completed. He would 
lay it before the Persian king. To accomplish this another 
long journey was undertaken. To its natural hardship was 
added the danger of his life from the bigotry of the people, 
as they knew his mission to introduce a foreign religion. 
He one day attended a reception given by the Vizier, 
bringing his Bible. Vizier challenged him with " You 
had better say, ' God is God, and Mahomet is the prophet 
of God.' ' Martyn replied, at the risk of losing his head, 
" God is God, and Jesus is the Son of God." The by- 
standers cried put, "What will you say when your tongue 
is burnt out for such blasphemy ? " They would have 
trampled the Bible with their feet had not Martyn rescue 1 
the manuscript from the floor. 

But what was the use of antagonizing the prejudices of 
4 



50 REMARKABLE NARRATIVES. 

the people ? Had we simply the diary of Martyn we 
might only be able to say that his burning zeal would not 
permit him to be silent. Everywhere he went he must be 
talking about Christ. But there was a providence in his 
tongue that he knew not of. Years afterwards Sir Robert 
Ker Porter, in journeying through Persia, was met by people 
who asked if he knew " the man of God," someone who had 
made an impression upon the people like that of a brief 
sojourn of an angel among them. They said, " He came 
here in the midst of us, sat down encircled by our wise 
men, and made such remarks upon our Koran as cannot be 
answered. We want to know more about his religion and 
the book he left among us." At Shiraz, long after 
Martyn's death, there lived an accomplished Persian, 
Mahomet Ratem, who confessed that for years he had been 
secretly a Christian. He had been convinced, he said, by 
" a beardless youth, enfeebled by disease, who gave him a 
book," which had since been his constant companion. It 
was a Persian New Testament, and on a blank leaf the 
name Henry Martyn. 

Martyn probably knew nothing of his personal influence 
upon these people — as little as we know the result of our 
lives. 

But to return to our narrative. He was out of money, 
and would have starved but for help from a poor muleteer. 
Burning with fever, aching with weariness, breathing with 
difficulty from the progress of his disease, he reached 
Tabriz, where the English ambassador received him. For 
two months Sir Gore Ousley and his lady watched by his 
bedside, until temporary return of strengh allowed his 
departure. In the meantime the ambassador himself pre- 
sented the New Testament in Persian to the king, by whom 



HENRY MARTYN. 51 

it was graciously received and publicly commended; since 
which it has shone as a day-star of hope to Christian 
missions in that part of the world. England has spent 
millions of money and many lives of soldiers in Persia, 
but the work of Henry Martyn, though his face was hardly 
known to its people, has accomplished a thousand-fold 
more. 

His work being done, the frail man started for home. 
Thirteen hundred miles overland must be traversed before 
he could reach even Constantinople. With a heartless 
dragoman and servant he started. Across burning plains, 
dangerous rivers, under the mighty peak of Mount Ararat, 
through dense forests, drenching rains and thieving 
villages, he pushed onward, though fainting, and always 
with the dread fever or chill. After a month or more of 
this sort of life, we find the last note of his journal, 
October 6, 1812 : "No horses to be had, I had unexpected 
repose. I sat in an orchard and thought with sweet com- 
fort and peace of my God — in solitude my company, my 
friend and comforter. Oh ! when shall time give place to 
eternity ? " Ten days later he was dead. How he died, 
no one knows, except that he was alone. There was no 
loving kiss of wife or sister or friend upon the chilling 
brow, but as they would say in the East, " God kissed him 
and drew out his soul." 

Friends in distant India waited for the coming one who 
would never come. But the story of his work floated over 
the lands, and with it the story of his heroism. A thrill of 
missionary interest went through the church. The cause 
of evangelization received an impulse second to none since 
the early days of the English Reformation. 

The story of Henry Martyn almost oppresses an ordinary 



52 REMARKABLE NARRATIVES. 

Christian. His spirituality was so refined that it is 
difficult to even appreciate it. It was like the rare atmos- 
phere of mountain heights, hard for some to even breathe. 
His courage and concentration of purpose make our lives 
seem weak and disconnected — like water spilled on the 
ground, compared with the torrent that turns a hundred 
factories. He was dead at thirty-two, having awakened a 
nation, and some of us are twice that age and have hardly 
begun to do anything for the great crying world and Him 
who redeemed it. We cannot follow Martyn ; we are not 
brave enough, nor fine enough in moral fibre to take his 
lustre. Let us, then, more deeply appreciate the lesson 
now carved in four languages upon his tomb at Tokat : 
" May travellers of all nations, as they step aside and look 
at this monument, be led to love, honor and serve the God 
and Saviour of this devoted missionary." — James Ludlow, 
D.D., in Missionary Review. 



Agony for Souls. 

The overheard closet supplications of John Knox were, 
" Give me Scotland or I die !" and those of George White- 
field were, " Give me souls, or take my soul ! " 

When the attendants around the dying bed of David 
Stoner thought that his spirit had taken its flight, he raised 
himself up in bed and cried, " O Lord, save sinners ! save 
them by scores ! save them by hundreds ! save them by 
thousands !" and his work on earth was finished. The 
ruling passion was strong in death. 

Of Alleine, author of Alarm to Unconverted Sinners, it is 



AGONY FOR SOULS. 53 

said that " he was infinitely and insatiably greedy of the 
conversion of souls ; and to this end he poured out his very 
heart in prayer and preaching." John Bunyan said : " In 
preaching I could not be satisfied unless some fruits appear 
in my work." Said Matthew Henry : " I would think it 
a greater happiness to gain one soul to Christ than moun- 
tains of silver and gold to myself. If I do not gain souls I 
shall enjoy all other gains with very little satisfaction, and 
would rather beg my bread from door to door than under- 
take this great work." Doddridge, writing to a friend, 
remarked : " I long for the conversion of souls more sensibly 
than for anything besides. Methinks I could not only labor 
but die for it with pleasure." 

Hear the death-bed testimony of the sainted Brown, of 
Haddington : " Now, after nearly forty years' preaching 
Christ, I think I would rather beg my bread all the labor- 
ing days of the week for an opportunity of publishing the 
Gospel on the Sabbath, than, without such a privilege, to 
enjoy the richest possessions on earth. Oh, labor, 55 said he 
to his sons, " to win souls to Christ." 

Fleming, in his Fulfilment of Scripture, mentions John 
Welsh, " often in the coldest winter nights visiting for 
prayer, found weeping on the ground, and wrestling with 
the Lord on account of his people, and saying to his wife 
when she pressed him for an explanation of his distress, <I 
have the souls of three thousand to answer for, while I 
know not how it is with many of them.' " 

Ralph Waller wrote in his diary as follows : " My great- 
est desire is for the salvation of sinners. It is my constant 
prayer for God to convert sinners, and revive His people. 
Lord, send the revival." Again: "The Lord is still mv 
portion and strength, saith my soul. I am happy in Him, 



54 REMARKABLE NARRATIVES. 

but I desire to be more useful. And I wonder why it is 
that I am not. Oh, for souls ! souls ! the salvation of 
souls ! " Again : " I need a more affecting apprehension 
of the value of souls, a more tender regard for the honor of 
God, and a more intense sympathy for perishing sinners. 
Oh, could I always live for eternity, preach for eternity, pray 
for eternity, and speak for eternity ! I want to lose sight 
of man and see only God." Two days before his death he 
called his faithful wife to his side, and said : " I do not 
wish to boast, but at Liverpool and Boston I appropriated 
one hour each day to pray for souls, and frequently spent 
that time prostrate on my study floor; in addition to which, 
at Boston, I held something like night vigils, arising to 
pray each night at twelve o'clock. I do not say it to boast, 
but it appears plain to me that the secret of success in the 
conversion of souls is prayer." 

It is said of Wm. McDermott that " he used to spend 
whole nights in prayer with John Smith before those 
memorable seasons of revival, in which multitudes of sin- 
ners were won to Christ. In an agony of prayer, with 
broken hearts and weeping eyes, and the pleading of faith, 
they wrestled with the Angel of the Covenant until they 
knew that they had taken hold of the strength of God. Then 
they always secured the fulfilment of the promise. It was 
said of John Smith, that when he came down-stairs in the 
morning, his eyes were sometimes well-nigh swollen up 
with weeping. He himself used to say that prayer need 
not have been so protracted if they had had stronger faith." 

Brainerd could say of himself on more than one occasion: 
" I cared not where or how I lived, or what hardships I 
went through, so that I could but ^ain souls to Christ, 
While I was asleep I dreamed of these things, and when I 



AGONY FOR SOULS. 55 

waked the first thing I thought of was this great work ; all 
my desire was for the conversion of the heathen, and all 
my hope was in God. " 

" John Hunt possessed this master passion for souls. He 
left parents and country in the freshness and vigor of 
youth, with locks as black as a raven's wing, soon to become 
white and hoary with labor. His career was short but 
glorious. He crowded the work of a lifetime into ten short 
years. The fire of love within him burned itself, in spite of 
every obstruction, into the heart of the heathen, subduing 
the cruelties of cannibalism, and winning gospel triumphs 
the most distinguished in missionary enterprise. His 
heart was set on three things : ■ The conversion of the 
Fijians, the translation of the Scriptures, the revival of 
Scriptural holiness.' John Hunt's prospect in death was 
unclouded brightness. He had safely committed his last 
treasures, his wife and children, in God's keeping. But 
there was something that hung about his heart more closely 
than these. That object to which all the energies of his 
great soul had been devoted, was the last to be left. He 
was observed to weep, to keep on silently weeping. His 
emotion was increased, and he sobbed as though in acute 
distress. Then, when the pent-up feelings could no longer 
be withheld, he cried out, ' Lord save Fiji.' This master 
passion of love for the souls of the Fijians had become 
identified with his very life." 

" The Rev. John Smith, a Wesleyan minister, had a 
passion for souls, which led him to do many strange things 
in the eyes of the world. Tt is said of him that at one time 
during a Manchester conference, he accompanied, by invi- 
tation, some ministers into the suburbs to dine. While 
dinner was in progress Mr. Smith was observed f o be 



50 REMARKABLE NARRATIVES. 

reticent and prayerful ; he had ascertained that a young 
lady present was unconverted. To Mr. Smith an unsaved 
soul was invested with no ordinary interest : its immediate 
value, ks unending duration, its purchase by the blood of 
Christ, its capacity of endless happiness, its danger of 
eternal woe, and a lost opportunity which can never be 
recalled, impressed him. ' B asides there is a spirit in man, 
and the inspiration of the Almighty giveth strength.' 
Before the ministers returned to conference there was only 
time for one of two things — a dessert or prayer. Mr. Smith 
asked the ministers to forego the former, and unite with 
him in prayer for the conversion of the young lady. 

" The young lad}^ became very angry, and said that Mr. 
Smith had singled her out for an onslaught, that was both 
unchristian and ungentlemanly. Yet the next morning 
found her a saved girl, ready for the Master's work. For 
six weeks she worked faithfully for God, and was used in 
11 is hands in the salvation of many souls. Then she was 
taken with a fever, and in a state of unconsciousness passed 
home to glory." 



Gregory Lopez, 

God favored him with uncommon grace, even from his 
tender years. In the providence of God he was made 
page to a Spanish potentate. The fear of the Lord was 
so rooted in the heart of young Lopez, that even a court 
life, and all its various agitations, which, like impetuous 
winds, are apt to ruffle the calmest souls, failed to 
disturb his composure. He relates that when his master 
sent him with any message, his mind was so fixed on 



GREGORY LOPEZ. 57 

God, that neither persons of the highest quality with 
whom he had to do, nor all the other occasions of dis- 
tracting the mind, which are found in the courts of 
princes, interrupted his thinking of God. 

His piety was of the deepest type. On one occasion he 
remarked to a friend that he had had such a conflict with 
the great enemy, and was obliged to use so violent efforts 
in resisting him, that the blood gushed out of his nose 
and ears. The knowledge which he acquired was indeed 
wonderful. Though he had never learned Latin, he 
translated the Scriptures from Latin into Spanish as 
correctly as though he had been equally acquainted with 
that and with his native tongue. It seemed that the 
whole Bible was continually before him. When men of 
learning asked him where such and such texts were, he 
not only told them without hesitation, but showed the 
sense of them with such clearness, however obscure they 
were, that there remained no difficulty or obscurity in 
them. Many persons of eminent knowledge came to him 
to remove their doubts concerning passages of Scripture, 
and they all returned, not barely satisfied, but amazed 
at the understanding which God had given him. He 
knew, with all the clearness which could be drawn from 
the Scripture and other histories, all that passed from the 
creation to Noah ; and he recited all the generations, 
their degrees of kindred to each other, their several 
ages, and the times when they lived, with as much 
exactness as if he had had the Bible before him and was 
reading them out of the book. ISTor was he ignorant of 
the history of other people ; but if occasion offered, could 
tell with the utmost accuracy — so far as any records 



58 REMARKABLE NARRATIVES. 

remained — what were their manners, their customs, and 
the arts which they had invented. 

The same knowledge he had of what passed from Noah 
to Christ, and spoke of those times as if they had been 
present to him. He referred all profane histories to the 
sacred; knew the wars and events which had occurred 
in any nation to the birth of Jesus Christ, and spoke of 
them as clearly as he could have done of the things of 
his own times. 

Gregory Lopez was a thorough master of all ecclesiastical 
history since the birth of Christ ; as likewise of all the 
emperors to Philip II., in whose reign he died. 

He was equally skilled in profane history, ancient as 
well as modern. He drew up a chronology from the 
creation of the world to the pontificate of Clement VIII., 
so exact, though so short, that all remarkable incidents, 
whether ecclesiastical or secular, were recorded in it. 

But this knowledge was not limited to history. He was 
so knowing in astronomy, cosmography and geography, 
that it seemed as if he had himself measured the heavens, 
the earth and the sea. He had a globe and a general 
map of the world, made with his own hands, so just that 
it has been admired by persons deeply skilled in the 
science ; and he was so ready herein that the Marquis of 
Salinas having sent him a very large globe, he observed 
in it several mistakes, corrected them, gave his reasons for 
it, and sent it back. 

He had so particular a knowledge of nations, provinces, 
and their customs, that he could accurately tell where 
every country was, and in what degree of latitude; 
their cities, their rivers, their isles ; the plants and 
animals which were peculiar to them — of all which he 



GREGORY LOPEZ. 59 

spoke as knowing what he said, yet without that arro- 
gance which sometimes attends knowledge. 

Lopez was well versed in anatomy, medicine, and 
botany, and he was skilful in penmanship. 

But all this knowledge did not for a moment divert 
his mind from the one thing needful. When asked 
whether none of these things ever gave him any dis- 
traction, he replied: "I find God alike in little things 
and in great." God being the continual object of his 
attention, he saw all things only in God. He had also 
great skill in directing others. He saw spiritual things 
with the eyes of his soul as clearly as outward things with 
those of his body, and had an amazing accuracy in dis- 
tinguishing what was of grace from what was of nature ; 
and that not only with regard to himself, but those 
also who consulted him in their doubts and difficulties. 
He fully satisfied all the doubts that were proposed to 
him ; he instructed everj 7 one how to act in his pro- 
fession. None were so afflicted, but he comforted them. 
He imprinted on the spirit of all to whom he spoke an 
ardent desire of holiness. His words were all words of 
fire, and inflamed the heart with the love of God. No one 
went from him without feeling himself comforted and 
strengthened. 

" If any man offend not in word," saith the Apostle 
James, "the same is a perfect man." We may then pro- 
nounce Lopez a perfect man. One who had lived with 
him in the strictest intimacy for eighteen years, says that 
he had never heard him speak one single word that could 
be reproved. His conversation was always of things 
useful and spiritual, meet to minister grace to the 
hearers. He measured his words so well that he spoke 



60 REMARKABLE NARRATIVES. 

no more than was necessary to make himself understood, 
and he never exaggerated anything. 

His patience and humility shone with great resplend- 
ency. Although he frequently suffered great pain at his 
stomach, and violent colics, he never made any complaint, 
nor indeed any show of them. While he was at St. Foy 
he had the toothache for almost a year together, but it 
was not perceived by any outward sign, only that twice he 
used some herbs which he knew to be good for it, and that 
sometimes it was so violent that he could not eat. 

He desired to be despised like his Master. He studied 
to forget all temporal things, and thought only of seeking 
God and serving Him. 

When he had any great conflicts, he rejoiced to sustain 
them for the love of God ; and, after he had conquered, he 
offered all that he had suffered as a sacrifice to Him. He 
offered Him not only the spoils won from his enemies, but 
the gifts and graces which He had given him, joined with 
fervent prayer, and an unspeakable sense of his obligations 
to the Giver of every good gift ; so that when he received 
any new grace or gift, his understanding being more 
enlightened, and his heart still more inflamed with love, 
instead of resting on those gifts and graces, he offered 
them to God. 

No wonder that the Rev. John Wesley should have said 
of him : " For many years I despaired of finding any 
inhabitant of Great Britain, that could stand in any 
degree of comparison with Gregory Lopez." 



DEACON LEE'S OPINION. 61 



Deacon Lee's Opinion. 

We know not where " Deacon Lee " lived, says the 
Golden Rule, nor whether he lived at all ; but his " opin- 
ion," as expressed in the subjoined sketch, sent to us by 
mail, ought to be read and pondered in every parish in the 
land : 

Deacon Lee, who was a kindly, silent, faithful, gracious 
man, was one day waited upon by a restless, ambitious, 
worldly church member, who was laboring to create un- 
easiness in the church, and especially to drive away the 
preacher. 

The deacon came in to meet his visitor, who, after the 
usual greetings, began to lament the low state of religion, 
and to inquire as to the reason why there had been no 
revival for two or three years past. 

'• Now, what do you think is the cause of things being dull 
here? Do you know'?''' he persisted in asking. 

The deacon was not ready to give his opinion, and, after 
a thought, frankly answered, " No, I don't." 

" Do you think the church is alive to the work before it V 

" No, I don't." 

" Do you think the minister fully realizes the solemnity 
of his work ? " 

"No, I don't." 

A twinkle was seen in the eyes of this troub'er in Zion, 
and, taking courage, he asked : " Do you think his sermon 
on ' Their eyes were hold en ' anything wonderfully great ? " 

"No, I don't." 

Making bold, after all this encouragement in monosyl- 
lables, he asked : 



62 REMARKABLE NARRATIVES. 

" Then don't you think we had better dismiss this man 
and hire another ? " 

The old deacon started as if shot with an arrow, and in a 
tone louder than his wont, shouted, " No, I don't." 

"Why," cried the amazed visitor, "you agree with me in 
all I have said, don't you ? " 

"No, I don't." 

" You talk so little, sir," replied the guest, not a lifctle 
abashed, " that no one can find out what you do mean." 

" I talked enough once," replied the old man, rising bo his 
feet, "for six praying Christians. Thirty years ago I got 
my heart humbled and my tongue bridled, and ever since 
that I've walked softly before God. I then made vows 
solemn as eternity, and don't you tempt me to break 
them ! " 

The troubler was startled at the earnestness of the 
hitherto silent, immovable man, and asked : " What hap- 
pened to you thirty years ago ? " 

" Well, sir, I'll tell you. I was drawn into a scheme just 
like this of yours, to uproot one of God's servants from the 
field in which he had been planted. In my blindness I 
fancied it a little thing to remove one of the ' stars ' which 
Jesus holds in His right hand, if thereby my ear could be 
tickled by more flowery words, and the pews filled with those 
turned away from the simplicity of. the Gospel. I and the 
men that led me — for I admit that I was a dupe and a tool 
— flattered ourselves that we were conscientious. We 
thought we were doing God's service when we drove that 
holy man from his pulpit and his work, and said we con- 
sidered his work ended in B , where I then lived. 

We groaned because there was no revival, while we were 
gossiping about and criticising and crushing, instead of 



DEACON LEE'S OFINION. 63 

upholding by our efforts and our prayers, the instrument 
at whose hand we harshly demanded the blessings. Well, 
sir, he could not drag on the chariot of salvation with half 
a dozen of us taunting him for his weakness, while we hung 
as a dead-weight to the wheel \ he had not the power of the 
Spirit, and could not convert men ; so we hunted him like 
a deer, till, worn and bleeding, he fled into a covert to die. 
Scarcely had he gone when God came among us by His 
Spirit to show that He had blessed the labors of His dear 
rejected servant. Our own hearts were broken and our 
wayward children converted, and I resolved at a conveni- 
ent season to visit my former pastor and confess my sin, 
and thank him for his faithfulness to my wayward sons, 
which, like long-buried seed, had now sprung up. But 
God denied me that relief, that He might teach me a 
lesson evei^ child of His ought to learn, that he who 
touches one of His servants touches the apple of His eye, 
I heard my pastor was ill, and taking my oldest son with 
me, set out on a twenty-five miles' ride to see him. It was 
evening when I arrived, and his wife, with the spirit which 
any woman ought to exhibit toward one who had so wronged 
her husband, denied me admittance to his chamber. She 
said, and her words were arrows to my soul : ' He may be 
dying, and the sight of your face might add to his anguish ! ' 
" Had it come to this, I said to myself, that the man 
whose labors had, through Christ, brought me into His 
fold, who had consoled my spirit in a terrible bereavement, 
and who had, until designing men had alienated us, been 
to me as a brother — that the man could not die in peace 
with my face before him 1 l God pity me,' I cried, ' what 
have T done?' I confessed my sins to that meek woman, 
and I implored her, for Christ's sake, to let me kneel before 



(54 REMARKABLE NARRATIVES. 

His dying servant and receive his forgiveness. What did 
I care then whether the pews by the door were rented or 
not ! I would gladly have taken his whole family to my 
home forever, as my own flesh and blood ; but no such 
happiness was in store for me. 

" As I entered the room of the blessed warrior, whose 
armor was falling from his limbs, he opened his languid eyes, 
and said, ' Brother Lee ! Brother Lee ! ' I bent over him 
and sobbed out : ' My pastor ! my pastor ! ' Then raising 
his white hand, he said in a deep, impressive voice, ' Touch 
not mine anointed, and do my prophets no harm ! ' I spoke 
tenderly to him, and told him I had come to confess my 
sin, and bring some of his fruit to him, calling my son to 
tell him how he had found Christ. But he was unconscious 
of all around ; the sight of my face had brought the last 
pang of earth to his troubled spirit. 

u I kissed his brow, and told him how dear he had been 
to me; I craved his pardon for my unfaithfulness, and 
promised to care for his widow and fatherless little ones ; 
but his only reply, murmured, as if in a troubled dream, 
was : [ Touch not mine anointed, and do my prophets no 
harm.' 

" I stayed by him all night, and at day-break I closed 
his eyes. I offered his widow a house to live in the re- 
mainder of her days, but like a heroine she said : ' I freely 
forgive you ; but my children, who entered deeply into 
their father's anguish, shall never see me so regardless of 
his memory as to take anything from those who caused it. 
He has left us with his covenant God, and II e will care for 
us.' 

" Well, sir, those dying words sounded in my ears from 
that coffin and from that grave. When I slept, Christ 



DEACON LEE'S OPINION. 65 

stood before me in my dream, saying, ' Touch not mine 
anointed, and do my prophets no harm/ These words 
followed me till I fully realized the esteem in which Christ 
holds those men who had given up all for His sake, and I 
vowed to love them evermore for His sake, even if they are 
not perfect. And since that day, sir, I have talked less 
than before, and have supported my pastor, even if he is not 
'a very extraordinary man.' My tongue shall cleave to the 
roof of my mouth, and my right hand forget her cunning, 
before I dare to put asunder what God has joined together. 
When a minister's work is done in a place, I believe God 
will show it to him. I will not join you, sir, in the scheme 
that brought you here ; and, moreover, if I hear another 
word of this from your lips, I shall ask my brethren to deal 
with you as with those who cause divisions. I would give 
all I own to recall what I did thirty years ago. Stop where 
you are, and pray God, if perchance the thought of your 
heart may be forgiven you." 

This decided reply put an end to the new-comer's effort 
to get a new minister who could make more stir, and left 
him free to lay out roads and build hotels. 

There is often great power in the little word " No," but 
sometimes it requires not a little courage to speak it so 
resolutely as did the silent deacon. 



66 REMARKABLE NARRATIVES. 



Quench Not the Spirit. 

During the ministry of the Rev. John Wesley Childs, the 
following awful incident, as related in the Earnest Chris- 
tian, took place : 

Mr. Childs had preached on Sabbath morning with 
unusual power and effectiveness. The whole congregation 
was deeply impressed ; and in every direction sinners, cut 
to the heart by the power of God, were weeping and 
praying for mercy. Seriousness was depicted on every 
countenance. 

Mr. Childs walked out into the congregation and con- 
versed with such as attracted his attention, upon the 
subject of religion. Passing about from one to another, 
he came to a gentleman, well known in the country, who 
appeared rather indifferent, and he kindly spoke to him 
about his soul. The man was an avowed infidel, and was 
engaged in a traffic well adapted to blunt and destroy all 
the finer sensibilities of the human heart. He was 
wealthy and proud ; he disdained religion. When Mr. 
Childs, spoke to him upon the subject, he treated the 
matter with the utmost levity and contempt. 

I le was tenderly besought to think more seriously, and 
to speak less rashly about a matter in which he really had 
so deep an interest. But he grew angry, and cast every 
indignity that he could upon the gentle and holy man that 
sought to lead him to Christ. Mr. Childs proposed 
prayer, and as the man of God pleaded for him, the man 
began to curse him ; and with all conceivable oaths and 
blasphemies, he continued to vent his feelings of malignity 
and contempt until Mr. Childs closed his prayer. He then 



QUENCH NOT THE SPIRIT. 67 

turned away in a rage, and in a short time left the camp- 
ground and returned to his home, which he reached about 
the going down of the sun. He sat for a long time on 
the long piazza in front of the house, and conversed spar- 
ingly with his family. As the twilight deepened and 
night let drop her curtain, he commenced walking up and 
down his piazza. Presently his tea was announced, but he 
refused to join his family at the table, saying he felt a little 
indisposed and did not feel like eating anything. He 
continued to pace his piazza, until it was time for the 
family to retire for the night. 

His wife requested him to go to his chamber. " No," 
said he, " not now. Leave me alone for the present." 
She urged him to go in from the night air ; that he was 
further endangering himself by his exposure. " Let me 
alone," said he, as she insisted upon his leaving the 
piazza. " When I go in at that door," said he, solemnly, 
" I shall come out no more until I am carried out to my 
grave." At first his wife was startled, but she recovered 
herself and remonstrated with him for using such lan- 
guage and indulging such gloomy feelings. Said he : "I 
cursed the preacher to-day. I did wrong. He is a good 
man, I doubt not, and I should not have treated him 
the way I did ; and now I am going to die, and I shall go 
to hell. I ought not to have cursed that man." She 
continued to expostulate with him ; told him that he was 
depressed and low-spirited, and did what she could to 
relieve his mind, but all to no avail. At a late hour he 
went to his bed ; but alas ! to rise no more. In the 
morning he was found quite ill. Medical aid was called 
in, and everything was done for him that could be to 
give him relief. But he told them that it was all in vain, 



68 REMARKABLE NARRATIVES; 

that he should die and go to hell, that his case was hope- 
less for this world and the world to come. He grew 
worse ; and it admits of a doubt whether the dying 
chamber of any man ever presented a more terrible and 
heart-appalling scene than did the chamber of this miser- 
able man. He sent for the pious tenants on his farm to 
come and sit by him and keep the devils out of his 
room. He said that the multiplied sins of his wicked 
life were like so many demons tearing his bleeding 
heart. Some attempted to direct his mind to the Saviour 
of sinners. " Oh," said he, " I have rejected the last offer ; 
I have cursed the minister who made the tender of 
salvation to me in the name of Jesus." The scene was too 
awful to behold. His neighbors fled from his presence, 
and his words of despair and remorse and unavailing 
regret haunted them wherever they went. 

The scene grew still more frightful. Despair — utter 
despair — was depicted in his face. His eyes seemed to be 
kindled as with a spark from the pit of hell ; his voice 
unearthly. He called his friends to his bedside for the 
last time. Said he : " I am dying. When I am gone you 
will all say that I died frantic and out of my senses. 
I never was more rational. I know what I am now 
saying, and all that I have said ; and I now make this 
statement, that what I have said may not be lost upon 
you." He then, with his remaining strength, cried out 
in the most startling accents, " The devils are around my 
bed ; they wait for me ; they mock my dying struggles, 
and as soon as I am dead they will drag me to the hottest 
place in hell." These were his last words. 



SOLILOQUY OF A LOST SOUL. 69 



Soliloquy of a Lost Soul. 

Come, oh, my soul, thy certain ruin trace, 

If thou neglect a Saviour's offered grace. 

Infinite years in torment must I spend, 

And never, never have an end. 

Oh, must I dwell in torturing despair, 

As many years as atoms in the air 1 

When these are done, as many to ensue 

As blades of grass or drops of morning dew ; 

When these are past, as many left behind 

As leaves in forests shaken by the wind ; 

When these are past, as many on the march 

As starry lamps that gild the spangled arch • 

When these are gone, as many thousands more 

As grains of sand upon the ocean shore ; 

When these run out, as many millions more 

As moments in the millions passed before. 

When all these doleful years are spent in pain, 

And multiplied by millions yet again, 

Till numbers drown the thought. Could I suppose 

That then my wretched years would have a close, 

This would afford some hope. But oh, I shiver 

To ponder on that awful word forever ! 

The burning gulf where I blaspheming lie, 

Is time no more, but vast eternity ! 

The growing torments I endure for sin 

Are never more to end, but always to bejrin ! 

Oh, that the hand that cursed me to the lash 

Wou)d bless me back to nothing at a dash \ 



70 REMARKABLE NARRATIVES. 

Unjustly I the sin-avenger hate, 
Blaspheme this awful God and curse my fate. 
'Tis just, since I, who bear the eternal load, 
Contemned the death of an Almighty God. 



—Sel. 



A Prince in Israel. 

William Clowes — one of the founders of the Primitive 
Methodist denomination — was born at Burslem, Stafford- 
shire, England, March 12th, 1780. His conversion in 
many respects resembled that of John Bunyan. For many 
years he had been a most notorious sinner, but now he 
became as eminent for piety of the deepest type. The 
enemy of all good assailed him on every hand, and fre- 
quently " came in like a flood;" but through faith he main- 
tained the victory. He rapidly " grew in grace." All the 
powers of his being were devoted to God, and he laid him- 
self out with all his might to save souls from eternal woe. 
It was not long before he became noted as a mighty man of 
faith and prayer. Many were the signal victories which 
he won in answer to believing prayer. Mr. Clowes says: 
Several of us at Tunstall consulted together how we 
might more effectually carry on the prayer-meetings in 
order to accomplish the grand object of our anxious desire 
— the conversion of sinners to God. We agreed that the 
person who should first address the throne of Grace should 
believe for the particular blessing prayed for, and that all 
the other praying laborers should respond, " Amen," and 
exercise faith also ; an 1 if the blessing prayed for was not 
granted at once, still to persevere in pleading until it 



A PRINCE IN ISRAEL. 71 

was bestowed. We conceived we were authorized by the 
Holy Scriptures to pray and believe for certain blessings, 
and to expect to receive them in this way ; but that it 
could not answer any useful purpose to pray for a hundred 
blessings, and go away without any. Thus Jacob, when 
he wrestled with the angel, persevered until the breaking of 
the day ; and his believing, unconquered importunity was 
successful (Gen. xxxii. 28). The Canaanitish woman cried 
after our Lord in behalf of her daughter ; but the Lord 
answered her not at first. Yet she cried again and again, 
until Jesus said : " O woman ! great is thy faith ; be it 
unto thee even as thou wilt " (Matt. xv. 28). And so of 
others. 

Mr. Clowes was soon after this appointed as class-leader. 
In this capacity he was so successful that ere long he was 
appointed to the leadership of a second class. His method 
of conducting these classes he thus describes : " In leading 
my classes I used to get from six to ten to pray a minute 
or two each, and thus to get the whole into the exercise of 
faith ; then I found it a very easy matter to lead thirty or 
forty members in an hour and a quarter ; for I found that 
leading did not consist so much in talking to the members, 
as in getting into faith, and bringing down the cloud of 
God's glory that the people might be truly blessed, as well 
as instructed in divine things." 

In addition to these labors he frequently exercised him- 
self as an exhorter, and also distributed Bibles and other 
religious books and tracts. 

Day by day he hungered and thirsted after righteous- 
ness, and, as in all such cases, the Spirit of the Lord led 
him into the experience of Christian holiness. It is not 
too much to say that, from this time forward, he moved 



72 REMARKABLE NARRATIVES. 

among men as a flame of fire. His labors were truly 
apostolic. Having li3ard from Lorenzo Dow a favorable 
account of the American camp-meetings, he, in conjunction 
with other devoted men, assisted in holding what is sup- 
posed to have been the first camp-meeting ever held in Eng- 
land, on Mow Hill, May 31st, 1807. Great results fol- 
lowed this meeting. The origin of the Primitive Methodist 
body, in a very important sense, dates from this memorable 
occasion. 

Other camp-meetings followed, and God set His seal of 
approbation on them by converting many souls. For the 
active part which Clowes and Hugh Bourne took in these 
meetings, the ministers of the Wesley an body, of which 
both of these devoted men had been members, cut them off 
from church fellowship. This was shortly after, no doubt, 
seen to be a great mistake. The classes, which had 
been under the spiritual care of Clowes, went with him. 
And, as these men could not refrain from pursuing this 
open-air work, which God was so signally blessing, and from 
otherwise engaging in zealous efforts to convert souls, and 
as the Wesleyans were determined not to countenance a 
movement which they strangely enough considered irregu- 
lar, there was no alternative but to form the fruits of their 
labor into classes, with regularly appointed leaders and 
stewards. 

The Rev. Geo. Lamb, in his memorial of William Clowes, 
observes : " Thus the professed followers of the venerable 
Wesley, the great field preacher, expelled from their com- 
munion a humble man of God for preaching the Gospel in 
the open air, without the sanction of the instituted authori- 
ties of the circuit, though by these efforts a number of the 
vilest sinners had been converted from darkness to light." 



A PRINCE IN ISRAEL. 73 

Wesley saw there was a danger of open-air worship being 
given up, and therefore solemnly enjoined his people to 
attend it, not only in new places, but in old-established 
circuits. He says : " The greatest hindrance to open-air 
preaching you are to expect from rich and cowardly, or 
lazy Methodists. But regard them not ; neither stewards, 
leaders, nor people. Whenever the weather will permit, 
go out, in God's name, into the most public places, and call 
all to repent and believe the Gospel." 

Mr. Clowes was now employed by two workingmen as a 
missionary. They agreed to give him ten shillings (Eng- 
lish currency) per week, to go out and labor at large in the 
work of the Lord. Never were labors more arduous and 
success more glorious than those of this remarkable man. 
He went in every direction, preaching a free, full and 
present salvation. And God was with him in power. In 
May, 1811, the various classes were organized as follows : 
Two travelling ministers, fifteen local preachers, seventeen 
preaching-places, and two hundred members. At a business 
meeting a few months after, the new body was named the 
Primitive Methodist Connexion. 

On a certain missionary tour he walked one day twenty- 
four miles, and while on the road, he says : " I fell into a 
profound meditation on the fall of man, his departure from 
original holiness, the depth of iniquity into which sin had 
sunk him, and the impossibility for any power but that of 
God to restore him. These reflections I pursued in my 
mind until I was brought into great sorrow and distress of 
soul. I felt the travail in birth, and experienced an inter- 
nal agony on account of the millions of souls on the earth 
who were posting on in the way of death, whose steps take 
hold on hell. I wept much, and longed for some conveni- 



74 REMARKABLE NARRATIVES. 

ent place on the road where I might give vent to my 
burdened soul in prayer. In a short time I arrived on the 
borders of the wood, and then I gave way to my feelings, 
poured out my soul, and cried like a woman in the pangs of 
childbirth. I thought the agony into which I was thrown 
would terminate my life. 

" This was a glorious baptism for the ministry ; the glory 
of God was revealed to me in a wonderful manner ; it left 
an unction on my soul which continues to this day, and the 
sweetness which was imparted to my spirit, it is impossible 
for me to attempt a description of." 

Space will not allow us to follow this apostolic man as he 
went through the principal counties, the cities, and towns 
of England ; nor to detail the wonderful displays of divine 
power which took place under his ministry. Persecution 
raged against him ; his name was cast out as evil ; and he 
had to endure many and severe hardships. But wherever 
he went the work of God broke out in power, sinners were 
converted, believers sanctified, and classes organized. At 
every session of their Annual Conference for years, their 
net increase amounted to four or five thousand, and not 
unfrequently the annual increase was ten thousand. 

In May, 1823, the report of the Connexion was 45 cir- 
cuits, 202 travelling preachers, and 29,472 members. At 
Mr. Wesley's twenty-fourth conference the statistics of his 
denomination were 40 circuits, 104 preachers, and 25,914 
members. Thus it appears that the Primitive Methodist 
body stood more in number at the period of its fourth con- 
ference than the Wesleyan body at the time of its twenty- 
fourth ! 

Rev. J. Davison, one of Mr. Clowes' biographers, says : 
" The plan of missionary operations in the infancy of the 



A PRINCE IN ISRAEL. 75 

Connexion was very simple, and wrought with surprising 
emciency. When a circuit was formed, its official authori- 
ties sent forth a missionary to enlarge the field. Sinners 
were converted and formed into societies; these were made 
a mission, the work proceeded, and the mission became a 
branch, or branch circuit, subject to its parent circuit. Then, 
when the work became further enlarged and consolidated, 
the branch became an independent circuit, sending forth its 
missionaries to extend still farther the field of operations, 
Thus the work went on multiplying itself." 

The Rev. J. Dodsworth says : " It was my happiness to 
become acquainted with Mr. Clowes about the year 1834. 
It was my great privilege to sit under his occasional minis- 
try, which, unadorned as it was, was the most spiritual, 
Scriptural, and mighty I ever heard. Few ministers, if 
any, since the days of the Apostles could have said to their 
hearers, with greater propriety than Mr. Clowes, 'our 
Gospel came not unto you in word only, but also in power, 
and in the Holy Ghost, and in much assurance.' His truly 
apostolic ministrations were such as I should have antici- 
pated from a legitimate successor of the Apostle Paul ; they 
were thrilling with power from on high, and resulted in the 
conversion of multitudes of sinners to God. Having a body 
of divinity in himself, he was superior to most books, and 
but sparingly read uninspired authors. He, however, 
studied the inspired writings, had ' an unction from the 
Holy One ' and was mighty in the Scriptures ; hence the 
great solidity, the point, the overwhelming power and 
amazing success of his ministry. 

" Mr. Clowes was very remarkable for his power in 
prayer. He abounded largely in ' the grace of supplication.' 
It has never fallen to my lot to experience such baptisms, 



76 REMARKABLE NARRATIVES. 

as I never failed to feel, while kneeling with him before the 
mercy-seat. Perhaps it will be seen, in the light of 
eternity, that much of the success which has crowned the 
labors of the Connexion was graciously vouchsafed in 
answer to his 'fervent and effectual prayers.' The results 
of the midnight devotions which he rendered to God, and 
of his wrestlings ' until break of day ' when 'as a prince, he 
had power with God and prevailed,' are yet to be revealed ; 
the witness of these holy exercises is in heaven, and their 
record on high. 

"Streaming eyes, broken hearts, cries for mercy, and 
joyful deliverances were ordinary effects produced when 
he drew nigh to God m public prayer. I was present at a 
love-feast conducted by him and his friend, the Rev. I. 
Hoi lid ay, in Mill Street Chapel, Hull, at the conclusion of 
which abouty forty souls were professedly converted to 
God. 

" Great as Mr. Clowes was in the pulpit, and mighty as 
he was in prayer, he was equally conspicuous for his strong 
and unwavering faith. ' I have believed, I do believe, and 
I will believe,' he would say ; and he soared to what he 
called the 'mountains of frankincense, and the hills of 
myrrh,' and regaled himself with fruits and flowers in the 
garden of the Lord ; bathed in its crystal fountain of 
purity ; and basked in its blissful bowers of holy serenity 
and heavenly joy. His strong faith enabled him to make 
his constant abode where only a few of even good men pay 
an occasional visit ; he lived at a great spiritual altitude, a 
sort of Pisgah's mountain life, on lofty banks of high and 
holy regions. If ever he pitched his Jbent, he shifted it 
higher still ; he was & spiritual mountaineer. ' His 
religious life appears to have been one rapid ascent from 



A PRINCE IN ISRAEL. ^7 

grace to grace/ No wonder that one who thus walked with 
God in spiritual climes, ' where peace sheds its balm, hope 
bends its rainbow, and the soul dwells at ease,' should be 
able to say, as he did, and to the honor of grace and the 
glory of God, be it recorded, ' / have never had a doubt for 
forty years. 7 

" In the social circle he was serious without gloom ; 
cheerful without levity ; and perhaps no man could have 
passed half an hour in his fellowship without feeling that 
he was breathing in an atmosphere of holiness, in contact 
with a spirit near of kin to ' just men made perfect,' and 
living for the time oja the verge of heaven ! " 

John Nelson, in describing his introduction to Clowes, 
says : " There was a most impressive gravity in his 
demeanor when he received me. His eyes were devoutly 
lifted up to heaven, while he implored a blessing upon me. 
' Let us pray a minute,' said he, and the next moment he 
was on his knees, pouring out the desire of his soul for me, 
in a manner which I cannot fully describe, nor shall I ever 
forget. Among other things which he fervently asked, 
this was one— that the spirit which used to come upon 
Samson at times in the camp of Dan, might, in all its 
energy, come upon me ; and that, aided by that power, I, 
too, might so smite the Philistines that they might fall 
before me heaps upon heaps. While he thus pleaded, the 
fire of the Holy Ghost fell upon me, and I was more fully 
endued with a power which, to a greater extent, prepared 
me for the work for which I was ill-fitted, and from which 
I had shrunk with trembling apprehensions. 

" Mr. Clowes had several prominent characteristics ; but 
the most prominent of all was his constancy and power in 
vrayer. In all things through which he was called to pass, 



78 REMARKABLE NARRATIVES. 

he had one never-failing resource, and that was prayer. 
Oft on these occasions his manner was very singular. 
There was no sign of agony, no conflict, no wrestling, no 
stirring up himself to take hold of God. In those days his 
hallowed spirit abode in a region far above all this. Some- 
times when sojourning in the home of pious poverty, where 
there was not a second room where he could enter, he would 
say to the good woman of the house, ' Now I want to pray ; 
pursue thy work, never mind me ; ' and then, without one 
word more, he would quietly kneel down in the most retired 
corner to which there was access, where he would remain 
for an hour. Generally, in such seasons of hallowed con- 
verse with the Deity, there was no audible expression, no 
groaning, no sound heard — no, not even a breath. There 
was an awful stillness, which some survivors whom these 
lines may reach, will well remember. He somehow, in this 
solemn quiet, sweetly sank into God, till he became as 
motionless as' a statue, and often, at these times, there was 
an inward whisper to his heart, which said, ' Be it unto 
thee even as thou wilt. ? 

" But it was in public prayer, when conducting divine 
worship, that he towered to his most lofty height, appeared 
to the greatest advantage, and witnessed the most glorious 
results. In this I never met with his equal ; and do not 
expect to meet with his equal again on earth. I never 
knew a person anything like him ; there were such fine 
bursts of glowing imagery, such an appropriate use of 
Scripture language, such delicate and striking allusions to 
the furniture and worship in the temple of Jerusalem, such 
a taking hold of divine help, such solemn familiarity with 
God, and such an unshaken confidence, in the exercise of 
which, like the princely patriarch, he would say, * I will 



A SCENE IN PRISON. 79 

not let thee go unless thou bless me,' and such immediate 
results, as cannot be accurately described, and of which a 
correct idea can be formed only by those persons who were 
present at such seasons." 



A Scene in Prison. 

To one of the Belle vue cells there came one morning 
a woman bearing the usual permit to visit a patient. She 
was a slender little woman with a look of delicate refine- 
ment that sorrow had only intensified, and she looked at 
the physician, who was just leaving the patient, with clear 
eyes which had wept often, but kept their steady, straight- 
forward gaze. 

"I am not certain," she said. "I have searched for 
my boy for a long while, and I think he must be here. I 
want to see him." 

The doctor looked at her pitifully as she went up to the 
narrow bed where the patient lay, a lad of hardly twenty, 
with his face buried in the pillow. His fair hair, waving 
crisply against the skin, browned by exposure, had not 
been cut, for the hospital barber who stood there had 
found it so far impossible to make him turn his head. 

" He's lain that way ever since they brought him in 
yesterday," said the barber, and then moved by something 
in the agitated face before him, turned his own way. The 
mother, for it was quite plain who this must be, stooped 
over the prostrate figure. She knew it as mothers know 
their own, and laid her hand on his burning brow. 

hi Charley," she said softly, as if she had come into his 



80 REMARKABLE NARRATIVES. 

room to rouse him from some boyish sleep, "mother is 
here." 

A wild cry rang out that startled even the experienced 
physician : 

" For God's sake take her away ! She doesn't know 
where I am. Take her away ! " 

The patient had started up and wrung his hands in 
piteous entreaty. 

"Take her away ! " he still cried, but his mother gently 
folded her arms about him and drew his head to her breast. 
"Ok, Charley, I have found you," she said through her 
sobs, " and I will never lose you again." 

The lad looked at her a moment. His eyes were like 
hers, large and clear, but with the experience of a thousand 
years in their depths ; a beautiful reckless face, with lines 
graven by passion and crime. Then he burst into weeping 
like a child. 

" It's too late ! It's too late ! " he said in tones 
almost inaudible. 

" I'm doing you the only good turn I've done you, 
mother. I'm dying and you won't have to break your 
heart over me any more. It wasn't your fault. It was the 
cursed drink that ruined me, blighted my life and brought 
me here. It's murder now, but the hangman won't have 
me and save that much disgrace for our name." 

As he spoke he fell back upon his pillow ; his face 
changed and the unmistakable hue of death suddenly 
spread over his handsome features. The doctor came for- 
ward quickly, a look of anxious surprise on his face. 

" I didn't know he was that bad," the barber muttered 
under his breath, as he gazed at the lad still holding his 



APOSTROPHE TO RUM. 81 

mother's hand. The doctor lifted the patient's head and 
then laid it back softly. Life had fled. 

" It's better to have it so," he said in a low voice to him- 
self, and then stood silently and reverently, ready to offer 
consolation to the bereaved mother whose face was still 
hidden on her bov's breast. She did not stir. Something 
in the motionless attitude aroused vague suspicion in the 
mind of the doctor, and moved him to bend forward and 
gently take her hand. With an involuntary start he 
hastily lifted the prostrate form and quickly felt the pulse 
and heart, only to find them stilled forever. 

" She has gone, too," he softly whispered, and the tears 
stood in his eyes. ".Poor soul ! It is the best for both of 
them." 

This is one story of the prison ward of Bellevue, and 
there are hundreds that might be told, though never one 
sadder or holding deeper tragedy than this one recorded 
here. — New York Press. 



Apostrophe to Rum. 

[Many are the scathing words written and spoken against 
King Alcohol ; but never have we seen such an array of 
invectives, such a torrent of hatred and scorn as is con- 
tained in the following.] 

O issue of Satan ! red with the fiery wrath and curse of 
Jehovah, stand back and answer the indictment I bring 
against you. It is found on the inquest of every pure heart 
under the whole heaven, and is signed a true bill by God as 
foreman of the grand inquest, Serpent and adder, fiend 
6 



82 REMARKABLE NARRATIVES. 

-and fury, enemy of God and man, move thyself aright in the 
cup and blush crimson with shame. But answer me : 
What innocence and purity have you bitten with your ser- 
pent fang ? What hearts of love and devotion have you 
stung to death with your foul touch 1 What hopes have 
you crushed under the loathsome pressure of your hideous 
.and relentless coil 1 

Listen to the cry of the orphan whose father you have 
murdered by your slow, deadly poison. Listen to the 
heart-broken lamentation. Yisit the happy homes which 
your loathsome and polluting presence have changed into 
desolation, drunkenness and despair, and hear the cry that 
rolls up through the sulphurous names of hell. From 
every gallows tree and dungeon of darkness, from every 
roof tree and hearthstone, blackened and blistered by your 
infernal power, accusing voices come to brand you as the 
worst enemy of the human race. 

Oh ! listen to the clanking chains in the maniac's cell, 
the shriek of violated innocence, the dying moan of the 
victim of the drunken assassin to-night, and tell me, oh ! 
tell me, in the ears of all, what reason or apology have 
you an hour, or a minute, or a second longer for corrupting 
the world with your poisonous breath or polluting presence 1 

Blessings wait upon all other creatures under the shining 
sun but you, while only curses follow you in this world and 
the next. Good there is in all things else but you, even 
in the meanest insect that crawls upon the earth, or in the 
smallest island builder of the sea, or the tiniest speck that 
floats in the illimitable and all-embracing azure fields of 
space all the countless worlds between * but for you, in 
you, from you, by you, through you, there is and there 
never was any good. Evil, and only evil, born of the devil, 



A VISION — THE MISSING ONES. 83 

coming from the devil, leading to the devil, condemned of 
God, condemned of man, an evil and a curse for evermore ! 
I curse you ! I curse you ! murderer and assassin, liar and 
villain, thief and robber, slanderer and blasphemer, 
seducer and vagabond, nee from the earth and resume your 
station in your native hell. Without you, oh, how happy 
this world might be ! and how it would blossom again with 
the peace and beauty of the Eden of God ! — Sel. 



A Vision — The Missing Ones, 

One summer evening for a part of our family worship 1 
read the fourth chapter of 1 Thessalonians. Before retiring 
to rest I seated myself on my easy chair, and mused on the 
last few verses of the chapter, which were as follows : Ck For 
if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them 
also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him. For 
this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we 
which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord, 
shall not prevent them which are asleep. For the Lord 
himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the 
voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God : and 
the dead in Christ shall rise first ; then we which are alive 
and remain shall be caught up together with them in the 
clouds, to meet the Lord in the air ; and so shall we ever 
be with the Lord." And as I mused I fell into a deep 
sleep, and had a most wonderful dream. My mind seemed 
to be clear and distinct, and my intellectual faculties 
stronger and brighter than in my wakeful condition. 

I thought I had awakened in the morning, and was 



84 REMARKABLE NARRATIVES. 

somewhat surprised to find that my wife was not beside 
me as usual. Supposing, however, that her absence was 
but temporary, I waited, expecting her speedy return to 
our chamber ; but after the lapse of what I considered a 
reasonable time, as she did not make her appearance, I 
arose and dressed. 

My wife's apparel was where she had placed it on 
retiring, and I felt confident she was somewhere about the 
house. So I went to my daughter Julia's room, thinking 
she might know the whereabouts of her mother ; but 
after knocking several times without response, I entered 
and found that she was also missing. " Strange, passing- 
strange, " said I to myself; " where can they both be ? " 
Then I went to the room of our son Frank, and found 
him up and already dressed, which was something quite 
unusual for him at an hour so early. He said he had 
passed a very restless night, and thought he might better 
get up. I told him of the absence of his mother and 
sister from their rooms, and requested him to look around 
and see if he could find them. Tn the meantime I hur- 
riedly completed my toilet, and soon Frank returned and 
said the missing ones were nowhere to be found, and that 
every door leading outwards was securely locked, as on 
the preceding evening. We were at our wit's end, and 
what to make of this strange occurrence we did not know. 
On again visiting Julia's room we found on a stand her well- 
marked open Bible. One prominent verse attracted my 
attention ; it read, "Be ye also ready, for in such an hour 
as ye think not the Son of man cometh.*' This passage 
my wife had always declared referred to the coming of 
Christ for His saints, the redeemed Church, according to 
1 Thess. iv. 16-18, while I insisted that it meant only the 



A VISION — THE MISSING ONES. 8* 

preparation for death. But I am digressing. Frank and 
I concluded that, without waiting for breakfast, we should 
each take a different route and visit some of our most 
intimate friends in quest of our dear ones. 

1 first called on my wife's sister, Mrs. E., who, with her 
husband, were good, respectable people, members of a 
Christian church, though rather worldly-minded. After I 
had rung the bell several times and waited somewhat 
impatiently, she appeared, and apologized for her dilatori- 
ness by saying she was in a " peck of trouble," and had to 
prepare breakfast herself, for her colored girl, whom she 
had always considered to be a real good Christian, had 
played her a mean trick. " She had gone off somewhere 
without even putting the kettle on the range, or saying a 
word to any of us. But what puzzles us to know is, how 
she got out of the house, for the doors are locked and the 
keys inside, just as we left them last evening on our return 
from Mrs. B.'s progressive euchre party." 

" Indeed," said I, "it is exceedingly strange;" and 
then I explained to her the object of my morning visit. 
When she heard of the mysterious absence of my wife 
and Julia, she became so very nervous that I was glad to 
change the subject by saying that, as I had not yet 
breakfasted, I would join them in their morning repast. 
When her husband heard my story he treated it with a 
good deal of levity, and declared that my wife was only 
playing me a practical joke, to induce me to rise earlier in 
the morning. He was sure the missing ones had secreted 
themselves somewhere about the house, and when I 
returned home I would find them all right. 

As we seated ourselves at the table, Mrs. E. said we 
would have to take coffee without milk, as her milkman, 



86 REMARKABLE NARRATIVES. 

who had heretofore been very reliable, had failed to make 
his appearance. 

Presently the door-bell rang, and Frank entered in a 
state of great nervous excitement, saying he had been all 
over town inquiring for his mother, and that, in almost 
every house he found trouble similar to our own. Almost 
everyone was anxiously searching for missing ones. He 
also stated that the streets were thronged with excited 
people, hurrying to and fro, many of them weeping 
bitterly. Breakfast was scarcely over before inquiries 
were made at the door as to missing neighbors, and 
among those who called was Mr. H., who greatly aston- 
ished us by stating that his two youngest children, ten 
and twelve years of age, had gone off with their grand- 
mother, who had been bed-ridden for over six years. At 
this announcement Mr. E. showed evident signs of alarm, 
and related a conversation he had held yesterday with a 
friend, whose religious ideas he had looked upon as quite 
heretical. 

His friend insisted that a vast majority of church 
members in these days were but nominal Christians, 
" lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God," and that 
the love of the masses for religious things had reached a 
very low ebb. " My friend also assured me," said Mr. E., 
that the Scriptures clearly taught that, when the elect 
number of Christ's Church would be complete, Christ 
would come as unexpectedly as a thief in the night, and 
call His saints, both dead and alive, to meet Him in the 
air. The transformation would be effected in the twink- 
ling of an eye ; and although the call would be made with 
a shout and the sound of a trumpet, yet none would 
hear it but those for whom it was intended. Then would 



A VISION — THE MISSING ONES. 87 

be realized the import of Christ's words, * In that night 
there shall be two in one bed, the one shall be taken and 
the other left \ two shall be grinding at the mill, the one 
shallbe taken and the other left/ I fear that time has 
now come, and, sad to say, we are among the left ones." 

Now as the morning was far advanced, it was 
suggested that we go down to our business places. Frank 
had already gone to his office, and I, with a heavy heart, 
wended my way along the avenue among an unusual 
throng of men and women, whose faces betokened intense 
sorrow. In the business part of the city I observed that 
many stores were closed, and those that were open did not 
appear to be doing any business. Every saloon that I 
passed was open, as usual, with groups of men outside, 
apparently engaged in serious discussion. As I passed by 
the city hall, there was no perceptible diminution of 
the usual crowd of political "hangers on " around the 
building. 

When I reaohed my own store, I found that my book- 
keeper and the faithful old porter, who had served me so 
many years, had not yet p%it in an appearance. My two 
other clerks were on hand, doing nothing ; nor did I feel 
like asking them to do anything. I then went to the 
Chamber of Commerce, and found the largest gathering of 
merchants that I had seen there in many months. In- 
stead of the lively, noisy bustle of buying and selling, and 
clerks and messenger boys running to and fro, there was a 
solemn gloom pervading the whole assembly. By unani- 
mous consent, and in consequence of the great calamity 
that had overtaken the community, it was voted that 
11 three days' grace be allowed on all contracts falling due 
this day." I will not attempt to set forth any of the 



8S REMARKABLE NARRATIVES. 

reasons and speculations that were advanced as to the 
cause of our present troubles, but all agreed that the 
visitation was a supernatural one, and that in some way 
we who were left on the earth were blamable for it. 

In the afternoon, by common consent, business of all 
kinds was suspended, excejDt in the vicinity of the saloons, 
where a great deal of disorder prevailed. Here and there 
were groups of people in earnest conversation. At one of 
them was a man who seemed to be well versed in Scripture, 
and as I approached he was saying that " This is the day 
spoken of by Christ in Matt. xxiv. 36-41, but none of us 
believed it, and now we are beginning to realize how 
foolish we were." In the evening nearly every church in 
the city was open, with overflowing congregations. 
Everybody was anxious to know the cause and meaning 
of the " great visitation, 5 ' and to learn how lost hopes might 
be regained. Many of the pastors had gone with the 
missing ones, but some were present in their churches. 
All order of service was dispensed with, and noisy 
confusion prevailed ; crimination and recrimination were 
bandied to and fro between the pastors and the people, 
the latter asserting that, if the pastors had done their 
dutv and taught their flocks the plain truths of the 
Bible, instead of lulling them to sleep with philosophical 
and moral essays, they would not now be in their present 
sad condition. In my own church the pastor was present. 
with scores of persons whom I had rarely seen at meetings. 

Most of the active workers and constant worshippers 

were absent. Audible groans and deep drawn sighs were 

occasionally heard from various parts of the room. Some 

were bemoaning the loss of children, others of husbands, of 

-, of fathers and mothers. The pastor was speaking 



A VISION— THE MISSING ONES. 89 

when I entered the room, and was entreating the audi- 
ence to endeavor to allay their feelings. He said : " None 
of you realize the keen disappointment I experience at this 
result of my labors. I am accused of having preached too 
much about the affairs of this life, and too little about the 
heavenly state and the things to come ; and of having 
kept you in ignorance of the imminence of the awful 
visitation which has manifested itself among us this day. 
In reply to these accusations I can only say that I have 
taught you the same theology that was taught to me in 
college, viz., to treat the Bible as a book largely of 
spiritual symbols and allegories. But I now confess that 
I was sadly mistaken, for, after what has occurred, I 
cannot help believing that God's Word means just what it 
says. I am glad, however, now to be able to say for your 
comfort that since this morning I have made a prayerful 
examination of the Scripture as to the present condition, 
and find that we are yet in the place of hope." 

Here a chorus of voices ejaculated, " Thank God for 
that ! " 

The pastor proceeded : " Although we have lost the 
glorious privilege of the raptured saints, salvation is yet 
ours, if we humbly and truly accept it. We may have to 
pass through greater trials and tribulations than the world 
has ever yet experienced ere we reach the Kingdom, but 
he that endureth to the end shall be saved." 

Here the electric light suddenly went out, and there 
arose such fearful screams that I sprang to my feet in 
terror — and — awoke ! " 

My wife, who was in an adjoining room, hearing my 
sudden uprising, hastened in to see what was the matter. 
Oh, how glad I was to see her, and to realize that my 



90 REMARKABLE NARRATIVES. 

terrible experience in my easy chair was only a dream. 
But the more I thought of it afterwards, the more solemn 
seemed the Scripture truths which it contained, and the 
more was I impressed with the importance of having our 
lamps trimmed and burning, ready to go out and meet the 
Bridegroom. — Set. 



A Sainted Roman Catholic. 

Madame de la Mothe Guyon was converted to God through 
the agency of a Franciscan monk on the 22nd of July, 1668. 
She says : 

"I bade farewell forever to assemblies which I had 
visited, to plays and diversions, dancing, unprofitable walks, 
and parties of pleasure. The amusements and pleasures so 
much prized and esteemed by the world, now appeared to 
me dull and insipid — so much so, that I wondered how I 
ever could have enjoyed them." 

A few years afterwards her husband died. Passing 
through severe trials she was led to give herself more fully 
to God, and to learn the blessedness of walking constantly 
by faith in Him. She says : 

" Great was the change which I had now experienced J 
but still, in my exterior life, I appeared to others quite 
simple, unobtrusive and common. And the reason was, 
that my soul was not only brought into harmony with itself 
and with God, but with God's providences. In the exercise 
of faith and love, I endured and performed whatever came 
in God's providence, in submission, in thankfulness, and 
silence. I was now in God and God in me; and where God 



A SAINTED ROMAN CATHOLIC. 91 

is there is as much simplicity as power. And what I did 
was done in such simplicity and childlikeness of spirit that 
the world did not observe anything which was much calcu- 
lated to attract notice. 

" I had a deep peace which seemed to pervade the who]e 
soul, and resulted from the fact that all my desires were 
fulfilled in God. I feared nothing; that is, considered in its 
ultimate results and relations, because my strong faith 
placed God at the head of all perplexities and events. I 
desired nothing but what I now had, because I had a full 
belief that, in my present state of mind, the results of each 
moment constituted the fulfilment of the divine purposes. 
As a sanctified heart is always in harmony with the divine 
providences, I had no will but the divine will, of which 
such providences are the true and appropriate expression. 
How could such a soul have other than a deep peace, not 
limited to the uncertainties of the emotional part of our 
nature, but which pervaded and blessed the whole mind ! 
Nothing seemed to diminish it ; nothing troubled it. 

" I do not mean to say that I was in a state in which I 
could not be afflicted. My physical system, my senses, had 
not lost the power of suffering. My natural sensibilities 
were susceptible of being pained. Oftentimes I suffered 
much. But in the centre of the soul, if I may so express it, 
there was divine and supreme peace. The soul, considered 
in its connection with the objects immediately around it, 
might at times be troubled and afflicted ; but the soul con- 
sidered in its relation to God and the divine will, was 
entirely calm, trustful and happy. The trouble at the cir. 
cumference, originating in part from a disordered physical 
constitution, did not affect and disturb the divine peace of 
the cent -p. 



92 REMARKABLE NARRATIVES. 

" One characteristic of this higher degree of experience 
was a sense of inward purity. My mind had such a one- 
ness with God, such a unity with the divine nature, that 
nothing seemed to have power to soil it and to diminish its 
purity. It experienced the truth of that declaration of 
Scripture, that ' to the pure all things are pure.' The pol- 
lution which surrounds has no power upon it ; as the dark 
and impure mud does not defile the sunbeams that shine 
upon it, which rather appear brighter and purer from the 
contrast." 

Finding the house she lived in to be quite unhealthy, fckis 
wealthy lady, who had been accustomed to enjoy all the 
splendor of Paris, removed to a little hut, of which she 
says : 

"It had a look of the greatest poverty, and had no 
chimney except in the kitchen, through which one was 
obliged to pass to go to the chamber. I gave up the largest 
chamber to my daughter and the maid. The chamber re- 
served to myself was a very small one; and I ascended to 
it by a ladder. Having no furniture of my own except 
some beds, quite plain and homely, I bought a few cheap 
chairs, and such articles of earthen and wooden ware as 
were necessary. I fancied everything better on wood than 
on plate. Never did I enjoy a greater content than in this 
hovel. It seemed to me entirely conformable to the little- 
ness and simplicity which characterized the true life in 
Christ." 

Her enemies, however, were determined not to let her 
rest long, even in this poor shelter. 

u It would be difficult for me to enumerate all the un- 
kindness and cruelty practised toward me. The little gar- 
den near my cottage I bad put in order. Persons came at 



A SAINTED ft OMAN CATHOLIC. 93 

night and tore it all up, broke down the arbor, and over- 
turned everything in it, so that it appeared as if it had been 
ravaged by a body of soldiers. My windows were broken 
with stones, which fell at my feet. All the night long per- 
sons wwe around the house making a great noise, threaten- 
ing to break it in, and uttering personal abuse. I have 
learned since who put these persons upon their winked 
work. 

"It was at this time that notice reached me that I must 
go out of the diocese. Crimes were tolerated, but the work 
of God, resulting in the conversion and sanctification of 
souls, could not be endured. All this while I had no un- 
easiness of mind. My soul found rest in God : I never 
repented that I had left all to do what seemed to me to be 
His will. I believe that God had a design in everything 
which took place ; and I left all in His hands, both the 
sorrow and the joy. 

" It pleased God," she says, " to make use of me in the 
conversion of two or three ecclesiastics. Attached to the 
prevalent views and practices, their repugnance to the 
doctrine of faith and of an inward life was at first great. 
One of these persons at first vilified me very much. But 
God at length led him to see his errors, and gave him new 
dispositions. 

" People," says Madame Guyon, " nocked together from 
all sides, far and near. Friars, priests, men of the world, 
maids, wives, widows — all came, one after another, to hear 
what was to be said. So great was the interest felt, that 
for some time I was wholly occupied from six o'clock in the 
morning till eight in the evening ', in speaking of God. It 
was not possible to aid myself much in my remarks by 
meditation and study. But God was with me. He enabled 



94 REMARKABLE NARRATIVES. 

me, in a wonderful manner, to understand the spiritual 
condition and wants of those who came to me. Many were 
the souls which submitted to God at this time ; God knows 
how many. Some appeared to be changed as it were in a 
moment. Delivered from a state in which their hearts 
and lips were closed, they were at once endued with gifts 
of prayer, which were wonderful. Marvellous, indeed, was 
Aie work of the Lord. 

"They were grievously chagrined," says Madame Guyon, 
" that a, tvoman should be so much nocked to and sought 
after. For looking at the things as they were in them- 
selves, and not as they were in God, who uses what instru- 
ment He p] eases, they forgot, in their contempt for the 
instrument, to admire the goodness and grace manifested 
through it. 

" God also made me of service to a great number of 
nuns, virtuous young women, and even men of the world. 
Among those was a young man of the Order of the Knights 
oE Malta. Led to understand something of the peaceful 
nature and effects of religion, he abandoned the profes- 
sion of arms for that of a preacher of the Gospel of Christ. 
He became a man constant in prayer, and was much favored 
by the Lord. I could not well describe the great number 
of souls, of whose spiritual good God was pleased to make 
me the instrument. Among the number were three curates, 
one canon, and one grand- vicar, who were more particularly 
given to me." 

Her " Methods of Prayer " were destined to exercise a 
mighty influence in the land. One thousand five hundred 
copies were immediately given away by a good man in 
Grenoble, and wherever they went they were eagerly read, 



A SAINTED ROMAN CATHOLIC. 95 

and stirred the people up to seek God. Three hundred 
copies were found and burnt in Dijon some time after this! 

" One day she entered into a church in which some reli- 
gious services were being performed. The priest, who had 
the direction of them, observed her ; and after they were 
concluded, went immediately to the house in which she 
lodged, and stated to her, with great simplicity and frank- 
ness, his inward trials and necessities. ' He made his state- 
ments/ she remarks, ' with as much humility as simplicity. 
In a short time he was filled with joy and thankful 
acknowledgments to God. He became a man of prayer, 
and a true servant of God.' 

"But, notwithstanding this unfavorable state of things, 
' God/ she says, ' did not fail to mak'< use of me to gain 
many souls to himself. He was pleased to regard me with 
great kindness. In the poverty and weakness of His poor 
handmaid, He gave me spiritual riches. The more per- 
secution raged against me, the more attentively was the 
word of the Lord listened to, and the greater number of 
spiritual children given to me.' 

" Some of these persons were involved in the trials she 
endured. A number were banished from the city, chiefly 
on the ground of having attended religious conferences at 
her house or with her. One was banished, she states, 
against whom nothing further was alleged than his having 
made the remark, that her little book, meaning probably 
her book on Prayer, was a good one." 

On the 29th of January, 1688, she was suddenly ordered 
to go to a convent, where she was kept separated from her 
daughter, and hardly treated, yet she coolly says : 

" When none came to see her, with whom she might con- 
verse, she wrote ; when tired of writing the incidents of 



96 REMARKABLE NARRATIVES. 

her life, she corresponded with her friends ; when oppor- 
tunities for doing good in this manner did not present 
themselves, she solaced the hours of solitude by writing 
poems." 

She was offered her liberty if she would consent to the 
marriage of her daughter with a godless nobleman, nephew 
to the Archbishop of Paris. She made this noble reply : 

" God allows suffering, but never allows wrong. I see 
clearly that it is His will that I should remain in prison, 
and endure the pains which are connected with it ; and I 
am entirely content that it should be so. I can never buy 
my liberty at the expense of sacrificing my daughter." 

After eight months' imprisonment, she was set at liberty 
by the intercession of Madame de Maintenon, and immedi- 
ately began again her course of private meetings, but now 
devoting the time more entirely to those who were saved 
and seeking sanctification. 

"After the labors of the day, I have, for some time past, 
spent a portion of the night in writing commentaries on 
the Scriptures. I began this at Grenoble \ and though my 
labors were many and my health was poor, the Lord 
enabled me, in the course of six months, to write on all the 
books of the Old Testament." 

It was at this time that she made the acquaintance of 
Abbe Fenelon, afterwards Archbishop of Cambray, who 
became a sanctified witness to the truth, and remained till 
death not only a fearless champion of the cause of holiness, 
but a true friend to the persecuted lady, who had been to 
so great an extent his mother in the faith. 

On the 8th of July, 1695, the Duchess of Mortemar 
came to the convent to take Madame Guyon back to Paris. 
It was no sooner known that she was in Paris than the city 



READING THE APPOINTMENTS. 97 

was in an uproar. She soon had to hide, and after some 
six months she was found and sent to prison. She says : 
"I passed my time in great peace, content to spend the 
remainder of my life there, if such should be the will of 
God. T employed part of my time in writing religious 
songs. I and my maid La Gautiere, who was with me in 
prison, committed them to heart as fast as I made them. 
Together we sang praises to thee, O our God ! It some- 
times seemed to me as if I were a little bird whom the 
Lord had placed in a cage, and that I had nothing to do 
now but to sing. The joy of my heart gave a brightness 
to the objects around me. The stones of my prison looked 
in my eyes like rubies. I esteemed them more than all the 
gaudy brilliances of a vain world. My heart was full of 
that joy which thou givest to them who love thee in the 
midst of their greatest crosses." 



Reading the Appointments. 

I was sitting in the wing-slip, close beside the altar rail, 
When the Bishop came in softly, with a face serene, but pale, 
And a silence indescribably pathetic in its power, 
Such as might have reigned in heaven through that " space 

of half an hour," 
Rested on the whole assembly as the Bishop rose and said : 
" All the business being finished, the appointments will be 

read." 

Not as one who handles lightly merchandise of little worth, 
But as dealing with the richest, most important things of 
earth, 

7 



98 REMARKABLE NARRATIVES. 

In the fellowship of Jesus, with the failings of a man, 
The good Bishop asked forbearance — he had done his best 

to plan 
For the glory of- his Master, trusting Him to guide the pen 
Without prejudice or favor ; and the preachers cried 

" Amen ! " 

" Beulah Mountains — Henry Singer " — happy people, 

na PP3 7 P r i es t, 
On the daintiest of the Gospel through the changing year 

to feast ; 
Not a church trial ever vexed them, all their preachers 

stay three years, 
And depart amid a tempest of the purest kind of tears. 

" Troubled Waters — Nathan Peaceful " — how that sainted 
face grew red ! 

How the tears streamed through his fingers as he held his 
swimming head ! 

But his wife stooped down and whispered — what sweet 
message did she bear *? 

For he turned with face transfigured as upon some mount 
of prayer. 

Swift as thought in highest action, sorrow^ passed and glad- 
ness came 

At some wondrous strain of music breaking forth from 
Jesus' name. 

" Holy Rapture," said the Bishop, " I have left to be 

supplied," 
And I thought — You couldn't fill it, Mr. Bishop, if you 

tried. 



READING THE APPOINTMENTS. 99 

For an angel duly transferred to this Conference below 
Wouldn't know one-half the wonders that those blessed 

people know ; 
They would note some strain of discord though he sang as 

heaven sings, 
And discover some shortcomings in the feathers of his wings. 

" Grand Endeavor — Jonas Laggard." Blessed be the 

Lord ! thought I ; 
They have put that Brother Laggard where he has to work 

or die, 
For the church at Grand Endeavor, with its energy and 

prayer, 
Will transform him to a hero or just drive him to despair. 
If his trumpet lacks the vigor of the Gospel's charming 

sound, 
They will start a big revival, and forget that he's around. 

" Union Furnace — Solon Trimmer" — what a Bishop he 

must be ! 
They have got the kind of preacher that will suit them to 

aT; 
Metho-Congo-Baptist — Uni — in one nature, blithe and 

bland, 
Fire or water, hell or heaven, always ready on demand. 
" Consecration — Jacob Faithful " — hand in hand the two 

will go 
Through the years before them bringing heavenly life to 

earth below. 
" Greenland Corners — Peter Wholesoul " — but he lost his 

self-control, 
Buttoned up his coat as if he felt a cold wind strike his 

W)u1 ' LifC. 



100 REMARKABLE NARRATIVES. 

Saw the dreary path before him, drew a deep breath, knit 

his brows, 
Then concluded to be faithful to his ordination vows. 

In the front pews sat the fathers, hair as white as driven 

snow — 
As the Bishop read the appointments they had filled long 

years ago, 
Tender memories rushed upon them, life revived in heart 

and brain 
Till it seemed that they could travel old circuits o'er again. 

" Happy Haven — Joseph Restful " — how the joy shone in 

his face 
At the thought of being pastor for three years in such a 

place ! 
" Hard-as-Granite — Ephraim Smasher " — there the 

stewards sat in a row, 
And they didn't want that Smasher, and he didn't want 

to go. 

" Drowsy Hollow — Israel Wakim " — he is sent to sow and 

reap 
Where the congregations gather in the interests of sleep, 
As they sit on Sabbath morning in their softly cushioned 

pews 
They begin to make arrangements for their regular weekly 

snooze. 
Through the prayer a dimness gathers over every mortal 

eye; 
Through the reading of the Scriptures they begin to droop 

and sigh ; 



READING THE APPOINTMENTS. 101 

In the hymn before the sermon, with its music grand and 

sweet, 
They put forth one mighty effort to be seen upon their 

feet ; 
Then amidst the sermon, throbbing with the Gospel's 

sweetest sound, 
They sink down in deepest slumber and are nodding all 

around. 
But I guess that Brother Wakim, on the first bright 

Sabbath day, 
When he preaches to that people, and is heard a mile away, 
Will defy both saint and sinner on a breast to lay a chin 
Till he strikes the strain of li lastly," and 111 warrant him 

to win. 
For by all who ever hea.rd him it is confidently said, 
If 'twere possible to mortal, he would wake the very dead. 
Then a mist came o'er my vision as the Bishop still read on, 
And the veil that hides the future, for a moment was with- 
drawn, 
For I saw the world's Redeemer far above the Bishop stand, 
On His head a crown of glory, and a long roll in His hand. 

Round His throne a countless number of the ransomed, 
listening, press'd — 

He was stationing His preachers in the city of the blest. 

Some whose names were most familiar, known and rever- 
enced by all, 

Went down to the smaller mansions back against the city 
wall. 

One who took the poorest churches, miles away from 

crowds and cars, 
Went up to a throne of glory with a crown ablaze with stars 



102 REMARKABLE NARRATIVES. 

How the angels sang to greet him ! how the Master cried, 
" Well done ! " 

While the preacher blushed and wondered where he had 
such glory won. 

Some whose speech on earth was simple, with no argu- 
ments but tears, 

Nothing novel in their sermons for fastidious itching ears, 

Coldly welcomed by the churches, counted burdensome by 
all, 

Went up to the royal mansion and were neighbors to St. 
Paul. 

Soon the Master called a woman, only known here in the 

strife 
By her quiet, gentle nature, though a famous preacher's 

wife, 
Praised and blessed her for the harvests she had garnered 

in the sky ; 
But she meekly turned and answered, " 'Twas my husband, 

Lord, not I." 
"Yes," the Master said, "his talents were as stars that 

glow and shine ; 
But thy faith gave them their virtue, and the glory, child, 

is thine ! " 

Then a lame girl — I had known her — heard her name 

called with surprise, 
There was trembling in her bosom, there was wonder in 

her eyes. 
" I was nothing but a cripple ; gleaned in no wide field, 

my King ; 
Only sat a silent sufferer 'neath the shadow of Thy wing ! " 



HINTS TO SOUL-WINNERS. 10^ 

" Thou hast been a mighty preacher, and the hearts of 

many stirred 
To devotion by thy patience without uttering a word," 
Said the Master, and the maiden to His side with wonder 

press'd — 
Christ was stationing His preachers in the city of the blest, 
And the harp strings of the angels linked their names to 

sweetest praise 
Whom the world had passed unnoticed in the blindness of 

its ways. 

I was still intently gazing on the scene beyond the stars 

When I saw the Conference leaving, and I started for the 

cars. 

— Rev. Alfred J. Hough, in Ziorfs Herald, 



Hints to Soul=Winners. 

[The various hints contained in this article have been 
gathered from many sources, most of which have been re- 
vised, while others are wholly original.] 

1. Every Christian can and ought to be a soul-winner. 
Accept the responsibility as in common to all believers. 
" Therefore they that were scattered abroad went every- 
where preaching the word." — Acts viii. 14 • also Acts xi. 
19. These disciples who were scattered abroad were not 
the apostles. See Acts viii. 1. 

2. Abide in your calling with God. It is not necessary 
to change your honest, honorable work to become a soul- 
winner, but take Jesus into partnership. 



104 REMARKABLE NARRATIVES. 

3. Abandon all faith in your own wisdom or plans. Rely 
on divine guidance. Only God knows the heart. 

4. Acquire power in handling the TTord. That is the 
weapon of the servant of God — the fire, hammer, sword, 
seed, bread, lamp, lever, mirror. Use one Bible always for 
the sake of locality of texts fixing itself upon your mind ; 
where you forget' chapter and verse you will not forget the 
place on the page. 

5. Aim to lead to immediate decision. First strike for 
conviction, then arouse conscience, then press the will to a 
choice. 

6. Ask God for a passion for souls. " Then I said, I 
will not make mention of him, nor speak any more in his 
name ; but his word was in mine heart as a burning fire shut 
up in my bones, and I was weary with forbearing, and I 
could not stay." — Jer. xx. 9. 

7. Attain facility of approach by habit. Winning souls 
is not the result of spasmodic, but of constant activity. It 
must be a law of daily life. 

8. All depends on prayer. Prevail with God, and then you 
will with men. Conversion is a supernatural work. " The 
effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much" 

9. Act as agent of the Holy Spirit. The grand encour- 
agement is that, while He is leading vou to seek souls He 
is working on the souls you seek. Compare Philip and the 
Eunuch, Acts viii.; Peter and Cornelius, Acts x. Keep in 
fellowship with the Spirit, and get His anointing. 

10. Read over the list of deaths very carefully in the 
morning papers. Each day will thus disclose to your 
notice some very painful bereavement. Enclose in an 
envelope a tract or small pamphlet you deem best suited to 
the occasion. In this way the privilege may be yours of 



HINTS TO SOUL-WINNERS. 105 

leading some stricken heart to Him, although you may not 
know it until that day when the secrets of all hearts are 
disclosed. 

11. The use of tract envelopes neatly printed with ap- 
propriate Gospel truth is a cheap and easy way of doing 
good. They reach various classes, and are read and re-read 
many times. 

12. Enlist others. "Iron sharpeneth iron; so a man 
sharpeneth the countenance of his friend.' 5 "Two are 
better than one." " Woe to him that is alive when he 
falleth." " A three-fold chord is not quickly broken." 
" One shall chase a thousand, and two shall put ten thousand 
to flight." Despise not the services of any in their appro- 
priate sphere. A little captive maid knew more about the 
man of God in Palestine than did the king of Israel, and 
was the means of saving her master Naaman. 

13. Tract distribution is one of the most likely methods 
of saving souls we know of. In no way can so much good 
be effected at so little expense, as by the distribution of 
tracts. Tracts did ^ood service in the £>Teat reformation in 
Germany. Huss and Baxter were converted by reading 
tracts. Thousands of conversions can be traced to tracts 
and books. A tract convertsd a fallen woman, who after- 
wards lived a consistent Christian life, and died a triumph- 
ant death. A lady in a railway car, while it was passing 
near some laborers, with a silent prayer to God for His 
blessing, threw some tracts out of the window for the 
laborers. She afterwards learned that the workmen found 
the tracts and read them and were converted. A revival 
followed and a flourishing church was the result. And 
when we recollect how long a single tract may be preserver], 
by how many families and individuals it may be read, and 



106 REMARKABLE NARRATIVES. 

when read by them, to how many others it may be lent, it 
is difficult to conceive of a way in which more good can be 
accomplished by a very small amount of means. 

Reader, perhaps you can not only scatter these messen- 
gers of light and love yourself, but denote a sum to our free 
tract fund for the purpose of sending some to needy 
Christian workers. One sister writes of burning corn 
stalks in order to save money to buy salvation literature. 
You may put your money in banks, or in property, and lose 
every cent you own. Treasures laid up on earth are never 
safe. But if you give of your means to win souls to Christ 
you will be laying up treasures that will endure for ever 
and give eternal interest. "Sell that ye have, and give alms ; 
provide yourselves bags which vjax not old, a treasure in the 
heavens that faileth not, where no thief approacheth, neither 
moth corrupteth. ,} 

If you desire to save souls, glorify God, and lay up 
treasures in heaven, then act in this matter at once. Time 
is short and eternity is rushing on. Let there be no delay. 
By the agony and bloody sweat of God's dear Son ; by the 
streaming blood from His pierced side ; by the awfulness of 
an endless hell ; by the vastness of an approaching eternity, 
and by the priceless value of immortal souls, oh, help us in a 
determined effort to spread salvation truth through the 
land. Will you help ? Will You 1 WILL YOU | 

14. Bev. C. McMahon says : " Lending a book, giving a 
tract, an earnest entreaty, a silent tear, an affectionate 
letter, singing a song, visiting the sick, a consistent ex- 
ample, or a convincing argument may appear of little con- 
sequence ; but feeble as such instrumentalities seem, they 
have resulted in the salvation of thousands." 

15. " Put in more fo re-thought, and less <r/fer-thought. 



one woman's prayer. 107 

If you want to fish go where they are. Don't catch hold of 
the wrong end. Begin with small sticks to build a big fire. 
Butter your bread to make it taste well. Keep big ships 
in deep water. Bound pegs for round holes. Thunder don't 
hurt — it's the lightning. Keep away from mad dogs. Bring 
the cows home if you want milk. Shoddy and wool look 
much alike. Don't look for sweetness in a vinegar barrel. 
Don't fiddle on one string. Fatness and feeding go to- 
gether. To stir up deep water use a long pole. Harness 
the horse before the cart. Don't expect harvests when 
there has been no planting. Bead Cotton Mather's ' Essays 
to do Good.' The reading of this book very much made 
Franklin what he was Never despise the day of small 
things. All the weeping willows of Europe and Aineiica 
are said to have sprung from a green twig found in a basket 
sent from Persia to Pope the poet. Be not afraid of trials. 
They are sure to come ; but go on. Bead the history of 
good enterprises. Bead Nehemiah and Esther. Bead 
Clarkson's ' History of the Abolition of the Slave Trade.' 
Bead the 'Life of George Stephenson.' Bead the ' Life of 
Paul/ and see how God delivers and blesses." 



One Woman's Prayer. 

Sometime in the last century a poor woman in England, 
of whom the world knows but little, had a son, and she 
poured out har prayers and her tears for his conversion. 
But he grew up reckless and dissipated and profane. He 
engaged in the slave trade on the coast of Africa, and was 
perhaps as hopelessly abandoned as any pirate who ever 



108 REMARKABLE NARRATIVES. 

trod the deck of a slave-trader. But at last, when all 
hopes had nearly expirQd, his mother's ceaseless prayers 
were answered. He was converted, and finally he became 
one of the most eminent ministers in London. That man 
was the celebrated John Newton. 

John Newton, in turn, was the instrument in opening 
the eyes of that moralist and skeptic, Thomas Scott, after- 
wards the distinguished author of the commentary on the 
Bible. Thomas Scott had in his parish a young man of the 
most delicate sensibilities, and whose soul was "touched 
with the finest issues, but he was a dyspeptic, and sorrowful 
and despairing." At times he believed there was no hope 
for him. After long and repeated efforts Dr. Scott per- 
suaded him to change his course of life. That young man 
was William Cowper, the household Christian poet, whose 
sweet, delightful hymns have allured hundreds of wander- 
ers, and the most polluted, to the 

"Fountain filled with blood, 
Drawn from immanuel's veins." 

Among others whom he influenced to turn from the 
" broad road " was William Wilberforce, a distinguished 
member of the British Parliament, who gave the death- 
blow to the slave trade in Great Britain. Wilberforce 
brought Leigh Richmond to see the "better way" who 
wrote the " Dairyman's Daughter," which has been read 
with the devoutest gratitude through blinding tears in 
many languages all over the earth. All this indescribable 
amount of good, which will be redoubled and reduplicated 
through all time, can be traced back to the fidelity of John 
Newton's mother, that humble, unheralded woman, whose 
history is almost unknown. — Sel. 



THE ATHEIST SILENCED. 109 



The Atheist Silenced. 

11 The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God." — Psa. xiv. 1. 
" Answer a fool according to his folly, lest he be wise in his own 
conceit." — Prov. xxvi. 5. 

During the month of November, says an exchange, a 
clergyman and an atheist were in one of the night trains 
between Albany and Utica. The night being cold, the 
passengers gathered as closely as possible around the stove. 
The atheist was very loquacious, and was soon engaged in 
a controversy with the minister. In answer to a question 
of the latter as to what would be man's condition after 
death, the atheist replied: "Man is like a pig; when he 
di3-, that is the end of him/' As the minister was about 
o reply, a worthy Irish woman at the end of the car 
sprang up, the natural red of her face glowing more in- 
tensely with animation, and the light of the lamp falling 
directly upon it, and, addressing the clergyman in a voice 
peculiarly startling and humorous from its impassioned 
tone and the richness of its brogue, exclaimed : " Arrah, 
now, will ye not let the baste alone 1 Has he not said that 
he was a pig ? And the more ye pull his tail the louder 
he'll squale ! " The effect of this was electric. The clergy- 
man apologized for his forgetfulnes^, and the atheist was 
mute for the remainder of the journey. — Sel. 



110 REMARKABLE NARRATIVES. 



A Touching Story of a Little Life. 

" What is your name ? " asked the teacher. 

" Tommy Brown, ma'am," answered the boy. 

He was a pathetic little figure, with a thin face, hollow 
eyes, and pale cheeks, that plainly told of insufficient food. 
He wore a suit of clothes evidently made for someone 
else. They were patched in places with cloth of different 
colors. His shoes were old, his hair square in the neck 
in the unpractised manner that women sometimes cut 
boy's hair. It was a bitter day, yet he wore no overcoat, 
and his bare hands were red with cold. 

" How old are you, Tommy?" 

" Nine year old come next April. I've learnt to read 
at home, and I can cipher a little." 

" Well, it is time for you to begin school. Why have 
you never come before ? " 

The boy fumbled with his cap in his hands, and did not 
reply at once. It was a ragged cap with frayed edges, and 
the original color of the fabric no man could tell. 

Presently he said, " I never went to school 'cause — 
'cause — well, mother takes in washin' an' she couldn't 
spare me. But Sissy is big enough now to help, and she 
minds the baby besides." 

It was not quite time for school to begin. All around 
the teacher and the new scholar stood the boys that 
belonged in the room. 

While he was making his confused explanation, some of 
the boys laughed, and one of them called out, " Say, 
Tommy, where are your cuffs and collar ? " And another 



a touching story of a little life. Ill 

said, " You must sleep in the rag-bag at night by the looks 
of your clothes 1 " 

Before the teacher could quiet them, another boy had 
volunteered the information that the father of the boy was 
"old Si Brown, who was always as drunk as a fiddler." 

The poor child looked round on his tormentors like a 
hunted thing. Then, before the teacher could detain 
him, with a suppressed cry of misery he ran out of the 
room, out of the building, and was seen no more. 

The teacher went to her duties with a troubled heart. All 
day long the child's pitiful face haunted her. At night it 
came to her in her dreams. She could not rid herself of the 
memory of it. After a little trouble she found the place 
where he lived, and two ladies went to visit him. 

It was a dilapidated house. When they first entered 
they could scarcely discern objects, the room was so filled 
with the steam of soap-suds. There were two windows, but 
a tall brick building adjacent shut out the light. It was a 
gloomy day, too, with grey lowering clouds, that forbade 
even the memory of sunshine. 

A woman stood before the wash-tub. When they 
entered, she wiped her hands on her apron and came for- 
ward to meet them. 

Once she had been pretty, but the color and light had 
gone out of her face, leaving only sharpened outlines and 
haggardness of expression. 

She asked them to sit down. Then, taking a chair her- 
self, she said, "Sissy, give me the baby." 

A little girl came forward from a dark corner of the 
room, carrying a baby that she laid in its mother's lap — a 
lean and sickly-looking baby, with the same hollow eyes 
that Tommy had. 



112 REMARKABLE NARRATIVES. 

"Your baby doesn't look strong," said one of the ladies. 

" No, ma'am, she ain't very well. I have to work hard, 
and I expect it affects her." 

"Where is your little boy Tommy ?" asked one of the 
visitors. 

" He is there in the trundle-bed," replied the mother. 

"Is he sick?" 

"Yes'm, and the doctor thinks he ain't going to get 
well." At this, tears ran down her thin and faded cheeks. 

" What is the matter with him ? " 

" He was never very strong, and he's had to work too 
hard, carrying water and helping me to lift the wash-tubs 
and things like that. Of late he has been crazy to go to 
school. I could never spare him till this winter. He 
thought if he could get a little education he'd be able to 
help take care of Sissy and baby and me. So I fixed up 
his clothes as well as I could, and last week he started. I 
was afraid the boys would laugh at him, but he thought he 
could .stand it if they did. I stood at the door and 
watched him going. I can never forget how the little 
fellow looked," she continued, the tears streaming down 
her face. " His patched-up clothes, his poor little anxious 
look. He turned around to me as he left the yard, and 
said, ' Don't you worry, mother, I won't mind what the 
boys say.' But he did mind. It wasn't an hour till he 
was back again. I believe the child's heart was just 
broke. I thought mine was broke years ago. If it was 
it was broke over again that day. I can stand most any- 
thing myself, but, oh, I can't bear to see my children 
suffer." Here she broke down in a fit of convulsive 
weeping. The little girl came up to her quietly and stole 



A TOUCHING STORY OF A LITTLE LIFE. 113 

a thin little arm around her mother's neck. " Don't cry, 
mother, " she whispered ; " don't cry." 

The woman made an effort to check her tears, and she 
wiped her eyes. As soon as she could speak with any 
degree of calmness she continued : 

" Poor little Tommy cried all day ; I couldn't comfort 
him. He said it was no use trying to do anything. Folks 
would only laugh at him for being a drunkard's little 
boy. I tried to comfort him before my husband came 
home. I told him his father would be ma 1 if he saw him 
crying. But it wasn't any use. Seemed like he couldn't 
stop. His father came and saw him. He wouldn't have 
done it if he hadn't been drinking. He ain't a bad man 
when he is sober. I hate to tell it, but he whipped Tommy, 
and the child fell and struck his head. T suppose he'd 'a 
been sick anyway. But oh, my poor little boy ! My sick, 
suffering child ! " she cried. " How can they let men sell 
a thing that makes the innocent suffer so 1 " 

One of the ladies went to the bed. There he lay, poor, 
little defenceless victim. He lived in a Christian land, in 
a country that takes great care to pass laws to protect 
sheep, and diligently legislate over its game. Would that 
the children were as precious as beasts and birds. 

His face was flushed and the hollow eves were bright. 
There was a long purple mark on his temple. He put up 
one little wasted hand to cover it, while he said, " Father 
wouldn't have done it if he hadn't been drinking." Then, 
in his queer, piping voice, weak with sickness, he half 
whispered, "I am glad I am going to die. I'm too weak 
to ever help mother, anyhow. Up in heaven the angels 
ain't going to call me the drunkard's child, and make fun of 
my clothes. And maybe if I'm right up there where God 
8 



114 REMARKABLE NARRATIVES. 

is, I can keep reminding Him of mother, and He'll make 
it easier for her." 

He turned his head feebly on his pillow, and then said, 
in a lower tone, "Some day — they ain't going — to let the 
saloons — keep open. But I'm afraid — poor father — will 
be dead — before then." Then he shut his eyes from 
weariness. 

The next morning the sun shone in on the dead face of 
little Tommy. — Selected. 



A Man of Great Faith. 

This eminent man, George Muller, was born in the King- 
dom of Prussia, in 1805. He was converted to God when 
about twenty years of age, in a small meeting that was 
conducted by a university friend of his. After having 
spent many years in the university, he left Germany for 
England, in the service of the Gospel, and has been pastor 
of a cl lurch in Bristol now over fifty years. At the begin- 
ning of his ministry his salary was made up of pew rents, 
and by other similar means. He began to see the unscrip- 
turalness of these methods, and soon told his congregation 
that he would relieve them of all anxiety, and if they would 
give him just what they could find it convenient, for the 
rest he would s'moly speak to his heavenly Father, and 
look to Him for all necessary supply. 

He says : " Since that date, over fifty years ago, I have 
not failed to have an abundance for all the enterprises 
under my control, although I have not any stated salary or 
any regular income. Frequently the last copper had gone 



A MAX OF GREAT FAITH. 115 

before the supply came, but I simply took the matter to 
God. Often the last meal was on the table, but I asked 
my Father to give my family and orphanage this day their 
daily bread, and it always came. Not once were they with- 
out good, wholesome food upon the table ; not once did 
they go cold or hungry to bed." 

His attention was drawn to the numerous throng of 
children wandering about the streets, dirty and uncared 
for, suffering for want of food and clothing, and, having 
experienced such blessed help in answer to pra} r er, he 
wondered if he could not, by taking the matter to God, 
get all necessary assistance to help them. This took such 
a strong hold of his mind that in March, 1 834, he founded 
the institution now under his control, which bears the 
name, "The Scriptural Knowledge Institution, Home and 
Abroad." The object of this institution was to establish 
day and Sunday schools, circulate the Scriptures among the 
poorest of the poor, make missionary efforts, and circulate 
religious tracts, pamphlets, etc., among believers and un- 
believers, and befriend orphans. From the first he made 
God the patron of the institution. There are at present 
under its control some 118 schools — several in Spain, India, 
and other distant parts of the globe — all supported by 
funds coming out of the institution, which God had pro- 
vided, and for which he never had to ask any man to the 
amount of one cent. These 118 schools drew from the 
institution $50,000 a year, but all this vast sum was ob- 
tained through faith and prayer. In the circulation of the 
Holy Scriptures the work of the institution is something 
unprecedented. Since May, 1879, between 11,000 and 
12,000 Bibles, 67,000 New Testaments, besides other por- 
tions of the Scriptures, have been distributed. 



116 REMARKABLE NARRATIVES. 

Between three and four millions of tracts and pamphlets 
are distributed yearly. More than seventj-six millions of 
books, pamphlets, etc., have been given away ; sixty-seven 
millions in various languages. As the result of this enor- 
mous circulation of wholesome literature, a great many 
papists, and thousands of others, have been saved ; while in 
the various Sunday and day schools and orphanages, un- 
told numbers of children and youths have been savingly 
converted to God. 

On mission work throughout the world, he has spent 
altogether about a million of dollars. But the support of 
the orphan was the particular object in view when the 
institution was founded, and in that direction it has been 
eminently successful. It is now one of the largest institu- 
tions of the kind in the world. " He at first prayed for 
$5,000 to start the institution, and in doing so he expected 
to receive every cent without asking anyone for it. After 
four months he had enough, which came in small and large 
sums from various directions, and he rented a house, and 
fitted it up to afford a home for thirty children. On the 
day of the opening, he sat in his vestry to receive applica- 
tions for admission, but not one came. After some reflec- 
tion, he remembered that he had asked for money and 
house and furniture, but he had not prayed for orphans, 
and he at once humbled himself before God, and asked for 
orphans. Next morning one came, and since then more 
than 10,000 have been provided for. Within six months 
of the opening of the first home, he opened another, and 
soon after a third and a fourth, for girls and boys." 

In his orphanage there are about, on an average, 2,250 
children. None are admitted unless satisfactory proof can 
be given that they are -legitimate as to their parentage, real 



A MAN OF GREAT FAITH. 117 

orphans, and that they are needy. When they have come 
to a suitable age, they are furnished with an outfit, and 
apprenticed to trades, or placed in situations, while very 
many of them are retained as teachers in the various day 
schools. 

The support of the orphanage amounts to $230,000 
annually. The milk bill amounts to $10,000 yearly ! He 
has sometimes paid out as much as $27,500 in one day. 
"In all, Mr. Muller has received for his orphanage and 
other works of a Christian and benevolent kind, a total of 
$4,275,000, and he declares that he never asked a human 
being for a sixpence ! He has made it his uniform rule to 
go in prayer to Him who has the hearts of all men in His 
hands, and ask Him for all needed supply, and men have 
been moved to give it — some giving out of their abundant 
wealth, and some out of their poverty. He has received 
as high as $45,000 in one donation, and scores of times 
$5,000. A principle of his has been never to contract a 
debt in connection with his orphanage. Often the last 
sixpence has been spent, and within a few hours either 
money must come or starvation ; but the money came 
without fail, and never were the children sent hungry to 
bed." 

Hundreds of times he has held two prayer-meetings in a 
day with his helpers, beseeching God to send them supplies 
for the next meal of food for the orphans, and in every 
case the Lord has graciously answered their prayers. In 
eleven years he has received 5,000 answers to prayer. 
In the course of his life he has received some thirty thou- 
sand answers to prayer within the same day of asking (and 
that for some things he had been praying every day for 
over thirty years, and the answer had not come as yet). He 



1 IS REMARKABLE NARRATIVES. 

mentioned these things to encourage Christians patiently 
to wait on God. He received answers after waiting fifteen, 
twenty, and thirty years. When in the deepest poverty, 
he never gives any human being the least intimation of his 
needs, neither by word or look, but alwaj^s carries every 
matter, great and small, to God, and continually rejoices in 
the Lord. He declares that his countenance never looks 
sad or anxious when in need, as he considers that would be 
dishonoring to God, and inconsistent with a perfect trust 
in Him. 

•He says : " When I first began allowing God to deal 
with me, relying on Him, taking Him at His word, and 
set out, over half a century ago, simply to rely on Him for 
myself, family, taxes, travelling expenses, and every other 
need, I rested on simple promises. 

"I believed the Word. I rested on it and practised it. 
I ' took God at His word.' Though a stranger, a foreigner 
in England, 1 knew seven languages, and might have used 
them perhaps as a means of remunerative employment ; but 
I had consecrated myself to labor for the Lord. I put my 
reliance in the God who lias promised, and lie has acted 
according to His word. I've lacked nothing — nothing. I 
have had my trials, my difficulties, and my empty purse, 
but my receipts have aggregated tens of thousands of 
dollars, while the work has gone on all these years. 

"Now, this is not, as some have said, because I am a 
man of great mental power, or endowed with energy and 
perseverance — these are not the reasons. It is because I 
have sought God, and He has cared for the institution, 
which, under His direction, has 117 schools, with masters 
and mistresses, and other departments. The difficulties in 
such an undertaking have been gigantic ; but I read that 



A MAX OF GREAT FAITH. 119 

they that put their trust in the Lord shall not be ashamed. 
Many years ago a beloved brother came from America to 
see me. He expected to find me an old man, helpless and 
decrepit, bowed down with burdens ; and he wondered I 
did not look old. ' How is this V- he said, l that you keep 
so young under such a load as you are carrying V ' My dear 
brother,' I said, ' I have always rolled the burden on the 
Lord. I do not carry one hundredth part of it. The 
burden comes to me, and I roll it back on Him.' I do not 
carry the burden ; and now, in my seventy-sixth year, I 
have physical strength and mental vigor for work as great 
as when I was a young man in the university, studying and 
preparing Latin orations. I am just as vigorous as at that 
time. How comes this ] Because in the last half-century 
of labor I've been able, with the simplicity of a little child, 
to rely upon God. I have had my trials, but I have laid 
hold upon God ; and so it has come that I have been sus- 
tained. Day by day I cast my burdens on the Lord. 
This morning again sixty matters in connection with the 
church of which I am pastor, I brought before the Lord. 
Many persons suppose it is only about money that I trust 
the Lord in prayer. I do bring this money question before 
the Lord, but it is only one out of many things I speak to 
God about, and I find Fie helps. Often I have perplexity 
in finding persons of ability and fitness for the various 
posts that I have supplied. Sometimes weeks and months 
pass, and day by day, I bring the matter before the Lord, 
and invariably He helps. It is so about the conversion of 
persons — prayer, sooner or later, is turned into praise. Do 
not, however, expect to attain full faith at once. All such 
things as jumping into full exercise of faith in such things 



120 REMARKABLE NARRATIVES. 

I discountenance. All such things go on in a natural way. 
The little I have I did not obtain all at once." 

Again he says : " The first and primary object of the 
institution was, and still is, that God may be magnified by 
the fact that the orphans under my care are provided with - 
all they need only by prayer and faith, without anyone 
being asked by me or my fellow-laborers, by which it may 
be seen that God is ever faithful and still hears 
prayer. This my aim has been abundantly honored. 
Multitudes of sinners have been thus converted ; multi- 
tudes of the children of God in all parts of the world have 
been benefited by this work, even as I had anticipated. 
But the larger the work has grown, the greater has been 
the blessing, bestowed in the very way in which I looked for 
blessing ; for the attention of hundreds of thousands has 
been drawn to the work." 



Praying for Fish. 

An article with the above title appeared in The Christian 
of April 2nd, 1885 : 

" About eighteen months ago, the fishing season in St. 
Ives was very bad ; for weeks past scarcely anything had 
been caught. The depression in the town was very great, 
money was scarce, and many were wanting bread. It was 
a time of great trial, for starvation stared many in the 
face. Going on his rounds of visiting, the pastor called 
upon one of the officers of his church, a worthy old fisher- 
man after the type of Billy Bray. 

" ' You cannot see him, sir,' said the daughter. ' Is he 



PRAYING FOR FISH. 121 

out ? ' ' No, sir, but he is in his chamber praying for Jish, 
and he will not be disturbed.' ' Does he often go to 
pray ? ' was the pastor's query. ' Yes, sir, three times 
every day.' This was on Wednesday, and that evening 
the week-night service was held. As the pastor passed up 
the aisle this worthy fisherman said, l Pastor, you must 
pray for fish.' The pastor felt he must, and so he did. 
' Amen ! ' responded the congregation. That evening, 
when the minister arrived home, he said to his little girl 
of six and a half years, ' We have been praying for fish, 
dear, in the chapel to-night.' ' And you will get it, 
papa,' said the little thing, 'for I have been praying for 
fish too.' 

" There were only a few who had faith in God to answer 
that prayer, but that answer came, and that speedily. 

" The nets were cast that night in faith upon God. 

" Next morning the work of drawing them to land com- 
menced, and — will it be believed ? — fish were caught that 
sold at market value for Ten Thousand Pounds Sterling. 
Here was the answer to the prayer. If I had read this 
anywhere, I should have been disposed to discount it very 
liberally \ but the reader must remember that this incident 
was related within two hundred yards of the place where 
the nets were drawn in, and in the presence of the very 
men who cast and drew in the nets. There was no possi- 
bility of fraud or exaggeration in the recital of it, for the 
living witnesses to this proof that God answers prayer were 
present and heartily responded, ' That's all true,' as the 
speaker sat down. Let this cheer the doubting ones, and 
bid them remember the promise, ' My God shall supply 
all your need.'-— Yours faithfully, 

" F. C. Spurr." 



122 REMARKABLE NARRATIVES. 

Can any disciple of the loving Lord Jesus read this 
remarkable instance of answered prayer without calling to 
mind the history of the miraculous draught of fishes 
recorded by St. Luke, where the Lord says to His fisher- 
men-disciples, " Launch out into the deep, and let down 
your nets for a draught. And Simon answering said 
unto him, Master we have toiled all the night, and have 
taken nothing : nevertheless at thy word I will let down 
the net. And when they had this done, they inclosed a 
great multitude of fishes : and their net brake. And they 
beckoned unto their partners, which were in the other ship, 
that they should come and help them. And they came, 
and filled both the ships." 

Putting these two miracles together, the ancient and the 
modern, can any, whose soul has realized the power of a 
prayer-answering Saviour, help exclaiming joyfully, " Jesus 
Christ the same" yesterday, and to-day, and forever." — 
Heb. xiii. 8. 



The House-top Saint. 

" Yes, yes, sonny, I'se mighty fo' handed, and no ways like 
poo' white trash, nor yet like any of dese onsanctified col'd 
folks dat grab deir liberty like a dog grabs a bone— -no 
thanks to nobody ! " 

Thus the sable, queenly Sibyl Mclvor ended a long boast 
of her prosperity since she became her own mistress, to a 
young teacher from the North, as she was arranging his 
snowy linen in his trunk. 

" I'm truly glad to hear of all this comfort and plenty, 



THE HOUSE-TOP SAINT. 123 

Sibyl ; but I hope your treasures are not all laid up on 
earth. I hope you are a Christian ? " asked the young 
stranger. 

Sibyl put up her great hands, and straightened and 
elevated the horns of her gay turban ; and then, planting 
them on her capacious hips, she looked the beardless youth 
in the eye and exclaimed with a sarcastic smile, " You 
hope I'm a Christian, do you ? Why, sonny, I was a 
'spectable sort of a Christian afore your mammy was born, 
I reckon. But for dese last twenty-five years, I'se been a 
mighty powerful one — one o' de kind dat makes Satan 
shake in his hoofs — Is'e one of de house-top saints, sonny ! " 

" House-top saints ! What kind of saints are those'?" 
asked the young Korthener. 

"Ha, ha, ha ! " laughed Sibyl ; " I thought like's not 
you never heerd tell on 'em, up your way. Dey's mighty 
scarce anywhar ; but de Lord's got one on 'em at any rate, 
in dis place and on dis plantation ! " replied Sibyl, 
triumphantly. 

" And that is you I " 

" Yes, sonny, dat is me ! " 

"Then tell me what you mean by being a house-top 
saint." 

" Well, I mean dat I'se been t 'rough all de stories of 
my Father's house on arth, from de cellar up ; and now 
I'se fairly on de very ruff — yes, on de very ridge pole — and 
dere I sits and sings and sees heaven, like you never sees 
it t'rough de clouds down ycre." 

" How did you get there, Auntie 1 " 

"How does you get from de cellar to de parlor, and 
from de parlor to de chamber, and from de chamber to de 



124 REMARKABLE NARRATIVES. 

ruff! Why, de builder has put sta'rs thar, and you sees 
em, and puts your feet on 'em, and mounts, ha? " 

"But there are the same stairs in our Father's house for 
all His children, as for you ; yet you say house-top saints 
are very scarce 1 " 

" Sartin, sonny. Sta'rs don't get people up, 'less dey 
mounts 'em. If dere was a million o' sta'rs leadin' up to 
glory, it wouldn't help dem dat sits down at de bottom and 
howls and mourns 'bout how helpless dey is ! Brudder 
Adam, dere, dat's a blackin' of your boots, he's de husban' 
o' my bussum, and yet he's nothin' but only a poor, down- 
cellar 'sciple, sittin' in de dark, and whinin' and lamentin' 
'cause he ain't up stairs ! I says to him, says I, ' Brudder' 
— I'se alius called him Brudder since he was born into de 
kingdom — ' why don't you come up into de light ? ' 

" ' Oh,' says he, ' Sibby, I'se too on worthy ; I doesn't 
desarve de light dat God has made for de holy ones.' 

"'Phoo,' says I, l Brudder Adam ! Don't you 'member/ 
says I, ' when our massa done married de gov'ness, arter old 
missus' death ? Miss Alice, she was as poor as an un- 
feathered chicken ; but did she go down cellar and sit 'mong 
de po'k barr'ls and de trash, cause she was poor and wasn't 
worthy to live up sta'rs ? Not she ! She tuk her place to 
de head o' de table, and war all de lacery and jewelry 
massa gib her, and hold up her head high, like she was 
sayin', I'se no more poor gov'ness, teaching Col'n Mclvor's 
chiTn ; but I'se de Coin's b'loved wife, and I stan's for de 
mother of his chil'ii, as she had a right to say ! And de 
Col'n love her all de more for her not bein' a fool and 
settin' down cellar 'mong de po'k barr'ls ! ' 

' 'Dere, sonny, dat's de way I talk to Brudder Adam! 
But so fur it hain't fotched him up ! De poor deluded 



THE HOUSE-TOP SAINT- 125 

creetur' thinks he's humble, when he's only low-minded 
and grovellin'-like. It's on worthy of a blood-bought soul 
for to stick to de cold, dark cellar, when he mought live in 
de light and warmf, up on de house-top ! " 

' ; That's very true, Sibyl ; but few of us reach the house- 
top, "' said the young man, thoughtfully. 

:; Mo' fools you, den ! " cried Sibyl. " De house-top is 
dere, and de sta'rs is dere, and de grand, glorious Master 
is dere, up 'bove all, callin' to you day and night, ' Frien', 
com up higher ! ' He reaches down His shinin' han' and offers 
for to draw you up \ but you shakes your head and pulls 
back and says, ' No, no, Lord ; I isnt nothing.' Is dat de 
way to treat Him who has bought life and light for you % 
Oh, shame on you, sonny, and on all de down cellar, an' 
parlor, an' chamber Christians ! " 

"What are parlor Christians, Auntie?" asked the 
young man. 

" Parlor Christians, honey % Why, dem is de ones dat 
gets bar'ly out o' de cellar and goes straitway and forgets 
what kind o' creatures dey was down dere ! Dey grow 
proud and dresses up fine, like de worl's folks, and dances, 
and sings worldly trash o' songs, and has only just 'ligion 
enough to make a show wid. Our ole missus, she used to 
train 'mong her col'd folks, wuss den King Furio did 'mong 
de 'Gyptians. But, bless you, de minute de parson or any 
other good brudder or sister come 'long, how she did tune 
up her harp 1 She was mighty 'ligious in de parlor, but she 
left her 'ligion dere when she went out. 

" I do think missus got to heaven, wid all her infirmi- 
ties ; but she didn't get very high up till de bridegroom 
come and called for her ! Den she said to me, one dead o' 
night, 'Oh, Sibby,' says she — she held tight on to my 



126 REMARKABLE NARRATIVES. 

hand, ' Oh, Sibby, if you could only go along o' me, and 1 
could keep hold o' your garments, I'd have hope o' gittin' 
t'rough de shinin' gate ! your clothes and your face and 
your hands shine like silver, Sibby ! ; says she. ' Dear 
soul,' says I, ' dis light you see isn't mine ! It all comes 
'fleeted on to poor black Sibyl from de cross ; and dere is 
heaps more o' it to shine on to you and every oder poor 
sinner dat will come near enough to cotch de rays ! ' 

" ' Oh,' says she, ' Sibby, when I heard you shoutin' 
Glory to God and talkin' o' Him on de house-top, 1 thought 
it was all su'stition and igno'ance. But now, oh, Sibby, 
I'd like to touch de hem o' your garment, and wipe de dust 
off your shoes if I could on'y ketch a glimpse o' Christ.' 

" ' Do you b'lieve dat you's a sinner, missus V says I. 

" ' Yes, de chief o' sinners,' says she, with a groan. 

" ' Do you b'lieve dat Christ died for sinners, and is able 
to carry out His plan ? ' says I. 

" ' Yes/ says she. 

" 'Well, den,' says I, 'if you's sinner 'nough, and Christ 
is Saviour 'nough, what's to hender your being saved ? Just 
you quit looking at yourself, and look to Him.' 

" Den she kotch sight o' de cross, and she forgot her- 
self ; an' her face lit up like an angel's ; and she was a new 
missus from dat yar hour till she went up. She died 
a-singing — 

' In my han' no price I bring, 
Simply to thy cross I cling.' 

" But she mought a-sung all de way along, if she hadn't 
forgot the hoomiliation o' de cellar, and bused the pri- 
viledges o' de parlor. Parlors is fine things, but dey ain't 
made for folks to spend deir whole time in." 



THE HOUSE-TOP SAINT. 127 

" What's a chamber-saint, Auntie !" asked the young man. 

" Chamber-saints is dem dat's 'scaped de dark and de 
scare o J de cellar, and de honey-traps o' de parlor, and got 
through many worries, and so feels a-tired, and is o' rest. 
Dey say, ' Well, we's got ; long mighty well, and can now 
see de way clar up to glory.' And sometimes dey forgets 
dat dey's only half-way up, and thinks dey's come off con- 
querors a'ready. So dey's very apt to lie down wid deir 
hands folded, thinkin' dat Satan isn't nowhere now ! But 
he is close by 'em, and he smooves deir soft pillows, and 
sings 'em to sleep and to slumber ; and de work o' de king- 
dom don't get no help from dem — not for one while ! De 
chamber is a sort o' half-way house made for rest and com- 
fort ; but some turns it into a roostin' place ! You know 
Brudder Bunyan, sonny ? " 

" No." 

"What, never heerd tell o' John Bunyan ? " 

"Oh, yes." 

" I thought you couldn't all be so ignorant 'bout 'ligion 
up in Boston as dat. Well, you know he wrote 'bout a 
brudder dat got asleep and loss his roll, and dat's what's de 
matter wid heaps o' Christians in de woiT. Dey falls 
asleep and loses deir hope." 

" And do you keep in this joyful and wakeful frame all 
the time, auntie ? " asked the young learner. 

" I does, honey. By de help of de Lord and a contiul 
watch, I ke?p de head of de ole sarpint mashed under mv 
heel, pretty gineral. Why, sometimes when he rises up 
and thrusts his fangs out, I has such power gin me to 
stomp on him dat I can hear his bones crack — mostly ! I 
tell you, honey, he don't like me, and he's 'most gin me up 
for losV 



128 REMARKABLE NARRATIVES. 

'* Now, Sibyl, you are speaking in figures. Tell me 
plainly how you get the victory over Satan." 

" Heap o' ways," she replied. " Sometimes I get up in 
the mornin', and I sees work enough for two women ahead 
o' me. Maybe my head done ache and my narves is done 
rampant ; and I hears a voice sayin' in my ear, ' Come or 
go what likes, Sibby, dat ar wark is got to be done ! You's 
sick and tired a'ready ! Your lot's a mighty hard one, 
sister Sibby ' — Satan often has the imprudence to call me 
'sister' — 'and if Adam was only a pearter man, and if 
Tom wasn't lame, and if Judy and Cle'patry wasn't dead, 
you could live mighty easy. But just you look at dat dere 
pile o' shirts to iron, 'sides cookin' for Adam and Tom, and 
keepin' your house like a Christian oughter ! ' Dat's how 
he 'sails me when I'se weak ! Den I faces straight about 
and looks at him, and says, in de word o' Scripter, ' Clar 
out and get ahind my back, Satan ! Dat ar pile o' shirts 
ain't high enough to hide Him dat is my strength ! ' 
And sometimes I whisks de shirts up and rolls 'em 
into a bundle, and heaves 'em back into de clothes 
basket ; and says to 'em, ' You lay down dar till 
to-morrow, will you ! I ain't no slave to work, nor to 
Satan ! for I can 'ford to wait, and sing a hjymn to cheer 
up my sperits, if I like.' And den Satan drops his tail, 
and slinks off, most gineral ; and I goes 'bout my work 
singing : 

* My Master bruise de sarpint's head 

And bind him wid a chain ; 
Come, brudders, hololujah shout, 

Wid all yer might and main ! 
Hololujah ! ' " 



THE HOUSE-TOP SAINT. 129 

"Does Satan always assail you through your work?" 
asked the stranger. 

" No, bless you, honey ; sometime, he 'tacks me through 
my stummick ; and dat's de way he 'tacks rich and grand 
folks most gineral. If I eat too hearty o' fat bacon and 
corn cake in times gone, I used to get low in 'ligion, and my 
hope failed, and I den was such a fool I thought Christ had 
forgotten to be gracious to me ! Satan makes great wea- 
pons out o' bacon ! But I knows better now, and I keep 
my body under, like Brudder Paul ; and nothing has 
power to separate me from Him I loves. I'se had sorrows 
enough to break a dozen hearts dat had no Jesus to shar' 
'em wid, but every one on 'em has only forced me nearer 
to Him. Some folks would like to shirk all trouble on deir 
way to glory, and swim into a shinin' harbor through a sea 
of honey ! But, sonny, dere's crosses to bear, and I ain't 
mean enough to want my blessed Jesus to bar 'em all 
alone. It's my glory here dat I can take hold o' one end 
o' de cross, and help Him up de hill wid de load o' poor 
bruised and wounded and sick sinners He's got on His 
hands and His heart to get up to glory. But, la ! honey ! 
how de time has new ; I must go home and get Brudder 
Adam's dinner ; for it's one o' my articles o' faith never to 
keep him waitin' beyond twelve o'clock when he's hungry 
and tired, for dat alius gi'se Satan fresh 'vantage over him. 
Come up to my palace, some day, and we'll have more talk 
about the way to glory." — Mrs. J. D. Chajilin. 



130 REMARKABLE NARRATIVES. 

Startling Facts and Figures about 
Missions. 

The following facts and figures have been compiled from 
the writings of several eminent authorities on missions, 
such as Rev. A. B. Simpson, J. T. Tracey, D.D., Chaplain 
McCabe, and from various publications. We can assure 
the reader that he will not in this case find the figures dry. 

It is computed that there are 856,000,000 heathens 
sitting in darkness. At present there is an average of but 
one ordained missionary to every 400,000 heathens. 

India's population is 260,000,000. These have but one 
ordained missionary to every 350,000. 

China's population is 382,000,000. They have but one 
ordained missionary to every 500,000 of the population. 
Every third person who lives and breathes upon this earth, 
who toils under the sun, sleeps under God's stars, or sighs 
and suffers beneath the heavens is a Chinese. Think of it. 
Eighteen magnificent provinces in China, each as large as 
Great Britain; 1,700 great walled cities, some 7,000 
towns, and over 100,000 villages are open to the preaching 
of the glorious Gospel. A million a month are dying in 
China without God. There are 1,500 counties in China, 
representing hundreds of thousands of people, without a 
.single missionary. 

The whole world, with the exception of Thibet, is now 
open for the reception of the Gospel. 

The Bible is printed in 250 different languages. 

South America has 5,000 Christians among 50,000,000 
of people ; Cuba and Hayti, a few thousand among 
•2.000,000 heathen. 



STABTLING FACTS AND FIGURES, ETC. 131 

France, Austria, Spain, Portugal, Belgium and Italy, 
containing 140,000,000, are almost wholly Roman Catholic. 

Russia, with 100,000,000, is practically closed to 
evangelical Christianity. 

Turkey has a few thousand Christians among her 30,- 
000,000 population, mostly Armenians, Nestorians and 
Oriental Christians. 

Two hundred millions of Mohammedans in Asia and 
Africa have scarcely been touched by the direct influence 
of Christianity. 

Africa has, perhaps, a million Christians, mostly in 
Madagascar and Cape Colony. Probably there are not 
50,000 Christians in the great body of the c ntinent, 
among more than 200,000,000 pagans and Mohammedans. 

Japan has 40,000 Christians, but nearly 40,000,000 
heathen. 

Africa has perhaps 400 languages into which the Gospel 
has not yet been translated, representing more than that 
number of tribes yet uncivilized. 

There are 200,000,000 more heathens and Mohammedans 
in the world to-day than there were one hundred years 
ago, when modern missions began. 

But what about the nations of South America 1 Here 
we find a state of things almost incredible. 

Venezuela's 2,200,000 people have only one Protestant 
missionary. 

The four millions of Colombia have only three mission 
stations, all of one denomination. 

Ecuador, larger than Great Britain and Ireland, has no 
missionary, and never has had. 

Peru's three millions are scarcely touched by the 
Gospel, there being only two mission centres. 



132 REMARKABLE NARRATIVES. 

Bolivia has in all its more than half a million square 
miles no resident missionary. 

Less than seventy Christian teachers are struggling to 
uplift Chili's 3,300,000 souls. 

Nine missionaries of the South American Missionary 
Society, three Methodist stations, a few independent 
workers — these are almost lost among the four millions of 
Patagonia and the Argentine Republic. 

Paraguay has one missionary to 80,000 people ; and 
Uruguay one to 375,000. 

Brazil is larger than the United States, and more than 
three times larger than India. Each missionary there is 
confronted by 138,000 souls. Out of its 16,000,000 people, 
14,000,000 are entirely unreached. 

License, ignorance, craft among their only spiritual 
guides ; immorality, violence, ignorance, superstition, de- 
spair among the people. Oh, when and how will come 
deliverance for South America, the neglected continent > Q 

What is the professed Church of Christ doing to meet 
this awful need ? Twelve millions of American Christians 
are giving the sum of less than $6,000,000 to save a lost 
world. Fifty cents a year, one cent a week, a seventh 
part of a cent a day is the magnificent measure of our 
loyalty to Christ, our love to the heathen, and our valua- 
tion of an immortal soul. The salt in our porridge, the 
blacking of our boots, the matches with which we light our 
cigars, costs us a great deal more. One million and a 
half of the Methodist communicants never give a cent to 
missions. We have 80,000 ministers in the United States, 
or one to 750 people. There are 7,000 missionaries abroad, 
or one to every 200,000 people ; that is, three hundred 



STARTLING FACTS AND FIGURES, ETC. 133 

times as many in proportion in this land as in foreign 
lands. 

And what about our financial ability 1 Is it because 
the Christians of America are poor that they only can 
afford $6,000,000 annually for this work ? By no means. 
The estimated wealth of the Church members of America 
amounts to $13,000,000,000. The actual increase in their 
wealth last year, after all living expenses were paid, was 
$500,000,000. This amount would support one million of 
missionaries for one year, and would flood the world with 
the Gospel immediately, without taking a single dollar 
from the capital of the Christian people of this land. The 
disproportion between our means and our gifts is so 
utterly absurd that there is no room for even the idea of 
sacrifice ; in fact, the matter has not even reached the 
limits of decency. Compared to what we pay for other 
things, it is simply contemptible. 

The women of America pay more for artificial flowers 
for their hats and bonnets, a great deal, than the whole 
Church of God gives for missions. The men of America 
spend more in a year for tobacco than the whole Church 
has spent in eighteen centuries to spread the Gospel. The 
devil spends as much every fort}r-eight hours for whiskey 
as the whole Church spends for missions in a year. The 
extra buttons which the ladies of America put on their 
kid gloves would double the missionary contributions of 
the world. The theatres of New York alone receive 
more money in a single winter than all the missionary 
treasuries of the world. 

Someone wrote to Chaplain McCabe, and asked him to 
take stock in a silver mine of astonishing richness. As a 
reason, the writer said : " Much of the profits will be 



lo4 REMARKABLE NARRATIVES. 

consecrated to the cause of missions." The Chaplain 
replied : "I am working two good mines now ; one of 
them is the mine of Self-denial, far over in the valley of 
Humiliation. The other is the mine of Consecration, 
entered over on the heavenly side of the brook Peniel. 
There are riches enough in these two mines to convert the 
world. Self-denial of one meal a year from each com- 
municant will bring an increase of $550,000 in the 
annual income. Consecration of one cent a day by each 
communicant would bring over $10,000,000 annually to 
the missionary treasury. This is only a surface ; what 
would it be if we should get down into the depths." 

There are some selfish, narrow-minded souls, who cry 
out, " Tt is all very well to talk about sending the Gospel 
to the heathen, but we have them at our doors, and charity 
begins at home." For such persons we present a few facts : 
First : Ninety-eight per cent, of the contributions for re- 
ligious purposes is spent at Home, while only two per cent, 
is given to the foreign field. Yet, there are some who 
seemingly begrudge even that small amount, and stead- 
fastly refuse to make it any larger. Second : The Morav- 
ians are poor and few in number, having a membership 
of about 30,000, still their yearly average for foreign 
missions is the sum of $12 per member, and every fiftieth 
member is a foreign missionary. Now, what is the result 
of this noble sacrifice 1 The Moravians have, in heathen 
countries, three times as large a membership as in Christian 
lands. See how God honors their liberality. Third : The 
increase in converts to Christianity in heathen lands is 
thirty times greater than at home in proportion to the 
number of ministers employed, although the tests of 
disciplcship are of the most trying nature. Fourth : The 



STARTLING FACTS AND FIGURES, ETC. 135 

Bible says, " There is that scattereth and yet increaseth ; 
and there is that withholdeth more than is meet, but it 
tendeth to poverty." — Prov. xi. 24. 

How unlike 'fre selfishness of many professed Christians 
was the noble snepherd dog : 

It was a dark and stormy night. Most of the sheep had 
come back to the fold, but three were missing. The faith- 
ful watch-dog was lying in the corner in her kennel with 
her young and thought her toils were over. Suddenly the 
shepherd called her, and, pointing to the flock, cried : 
"Three are missing. Go ! " She gave one sad look at her 
little ones, and then gave a look of obedient love at her 
master and off into the darkness she plunged. 

Back she came after an hour with two of the sheep. 
There was blood upon her and upon them. Hard had she 
fought for their lives with wolves, and thorns and torrents, 
but they were saved, and with a grateful look she threw 
herself down in the kennel and gathered her brood to her 
bosom. But once again the master called, with his stern 
but kind voice, and pointing to the wilderness, said : 
" One is lost. Go ! " She looked up in his face with an air of 
unutterable longing ; but he still pointed to the wilderness, 
and if lips could speak, her glance uttered oae last fare- 
well, and into the darkness she plunged once more. It 
was long ere she returned. Late in the night a feeble 
scratching was heard upon the door. The shepherd rose 
and opened it, and there she crouched, half- de id, and the 
poor wounded sheep was standing trembling by her side. 
She had found the lost one, but it had cost her her very 
life. One look she gave into his face, which seemed to say, 
"I have loved you better than my lire,'' and crawled 
over into her kennel and lay down with her little ones and 



136 REMARKABLE NARRATIVES. 

grew still in death. She had loved her master and given 
her life for his lost ones. 

Oh ! if a poor dumb brute could love like that, with 
no eternity to reward her, no heaven to await her, but 
the smile of his approval in the last instant of her life, 
what should He not expect of us, for whom He has given 
His life already, and to whom He waits to give a recom- 
pense that can never fade away ? Beloved, shall we catch 
His glance as He looks out into the darkness, and cries : 
c< A thousand millions are lost, go ye " 1 

Oh, I seem to hear them crying, 
As they sink into the grave ; 
We are dying, we are dying, 
Is there none to help and save ? 

In a frame building in New York a furious fire had 
burst out. A little girl and her two brothers were sud- 
denly seen leaning from the window while the firemen 
stood below. In a moment she had dropped the eldest 
brother into their arms. Then they shouted to her to 
follow, for the flames were already sweeping through the 
window ; but she only L answered, " Willie is left," and 
flew back to gather him up from his little bed. Bundled 
up in blankets she brought him to the window and 
dropped him down, and then she quickly followed. But 
alas ! the flames were blazing around her thin print dress, 
and as she reached their strong arms her flesh was all 
blistered, and her little life had been struck a fatal blow. 
Two days she lingered, and at last she gasped out, as she 
was dying, to the doctor who was bending over her, 
" Doctor, I — saved — Willie ; Jesus — will — save — me, — 
won't — He ? " That is the spirit of sacrifice, that is the 



THE EXPERIENCE OF GEORGE FOX. 137 

spirit of missions ; that is the love which brought Jesus to 
die. 

The Master's coming draweth near, 
The Son of Man will soon be here, 

His kingdom is at hand. 
But ere that glorious day can be, 
This Gospel of the kingdom we 
Must preach in every land. 

Oh, let us then His coming haste ! 
Oh, let us end this awful waste 

Of souls that never die ! 
A thousand millions still are lost, 
A Saviour's blood has paid the cost. 

Oh, hear their dying cry ! 



The Experience of George Fox. 

His parents were pious members of the Church of England, 
and they brought him up carefully. The Christian Times 
says : " His mother, Mary Lago, was of the martyr stocls, 
and had inherited their intense feelings and religious en- 
thusiasm. To her he probably owed his education, and 
many of the determining principles of his life. As to his 
father, he was indebted for the incorruptible integrity and 
tenderly scrupulous regard for truth by which he was 
characterized. As a child, he was singularly quiet, docile, 
observant and meditative. He sat among his elders sil- 
ently watching their frivolity, untruthfulness, gluttony, 
and intemperance, and inwardly resolving : If ever I come 



138 REMARKABLE NARRATIVES. 

to be a man, surely I shall not do so, nor be so wanton. 
Some of his relatives would have had the thoughtful lad 
trained for a clergyman, but others objecting, he was ap- 
prenticed to a person who, as the manner then was, com- 
bined a number of occupations — shoemaking, wool-stapling, 
cattle dealing, and so on. George proved a valuable 
assistant to him. The fear of God rested mightily upon 
him, and he was anxiously watchful in all things to main- 
tain strict integrity. " Yerily " was a favorite word of his, 
and it "became a common saying among those who knew 
him that, " If George says 'Yerily,' there is no altering 
him." 

Fox became truly converted, and soon afterward devoted 
himself to the work of the ministry. 

He was imprisoned for some time asa " disturber of the 
peace." When liberated he still continued to travel up 
and down England, preaching and exhorting, and leaving 
permanent traces behind him everywhere. The term 
" Quaker " was first applied to him at Derby, in 1.650, by 
Justice Bennet, as Fox says, " because I bid them tremble 
at the word of the Lord." In 1655, he was brought be- 
fore Cromwell, who pronounced favorably upon both his 
doctrines and character. Still he was frequently imprisoned 
by country magistrates. 

He visited the Continent of Europe several times, and in 
1671, made a voyage to America, where he spent two years 
with gratifying success. His visit to the Netherlands was 
also attended with much of the divine blessing. 

We give a few extracts from his journal, showing the 
remarkable success and power of this man of God, and the 
bitter persecutions he endured for righteousness' sake ; 

" As I travelled through markets, fairs, and divers places, 



THE EXPERIENCE OF GEORGE FOX. 139 

I saw death and darkness in all people, where the power of 
the Lord God had not shaken them. As I was passing on 
in Leicestershire, I came to Twy-Cross, where there were 
excisemen. I was moved by the Lord to go to them, and 
warn them to take heed of oppressing the poor ; the people 
were much affected by it. There was in that town a 
great man, that had long lain sick, and was given up by the 
physicians ; and some Friends in the town desired me to go 
to see him. I went up to him in his chamber, and spoke 
the Word of life to him, and was moved to pray for him ; 
and the Lord was entreated, and restored him to health. 
But when I was come down stairs, into a lower room, and 
was speaking to the servants and to some people that were 
there, a serving man of his came raving out of another 
room, with a naked rapier [light sword] in his hand, and set 
it at my side. I looked steadfastly on him, and said, 
' Alack for thee, poor creature ! what wilt thou do with 
thy carnal w T eapon ? it is no more to me than a straw/ The 
standers-by were much troubled, and he went away in a 
rage, and full of wrath. But when the news of it came to 
his master, he turned him out of his service." 

Speaking of his imprisonment in Carlisle gaol, he says : 
"The judges were resolved not to suffer me to be brought 
before them ; but reviling and scoffing at me behind my 
back, left me to the magistrates of the town, giving them 
what encouragement they could to exercise their cruelty 
upon me. Though I had been^kept so close in the jailer's 
house that friends were not suffered to visit me, and Colonel 
Benson and Justice Pearson were denied to see me, yet the 
next day, after the judges were gone out of town, an order 
was sent to the jailer, to put me down into the dungeon 
among the moss-troopers, thieves, and murderers, which 



140 REMAUKABLE NARRATIVES. 

accordingly he did." A filthy, nasty place it was, where 
men and women were put together in a very uncivil man- 
ner, and not even a house of convenience to it. The 
prisoners were so lousy that one woman was almost eaten 
to death with lice. Yet, as bad as the place was, the 
prisoners were all made very ]oving and subject to me. 
Some of them were convinced of the truth, as the publicans 
and harlots were of old ; so that they were able to confound 
any priest that might come to the grates to dispute. But 
the jailer was very cruel, and the under jailer very abusive 
to me and to Friends that came to see me ; for he would 
beat Friends with a great cudgel when they came to the 
window to look in upon me. I could get up to the grate, 
where sometimes I took in my meat, at which the jailer 
was often offended. One time he came in a great rage, 
and beat me with a great cudgel, though I was not at the 
grate at the time ; and as he beat me, he cried, l Come out 
of the window,' though I was then far enough from it. 
While he struck me I was made to sing in the Lord's 
power ; and that made him rage the more. Then he 
fetched a fiddler, and brought him in where I was, and set 
him to play, thinking thus to afflict me ; but, while he 
played, I was moved, in the everlasting power of the Lord 
God, to sing, and my voice drowned the voice of the fiddle, 
and struck and confounded them, and made them give over 
fiddling and go their way." 

A way of escape from this horrible jail soon presented 
itself. The authorities offered Fox the captaincy of a com- 
pany of soldiers. Here is the record of what followed : 

"I told them, I know from whence all wars arise, even 
from lust, according to James' doctrine ; and that I live in 
the virtue of that life and power that took away the occa- 



THE EXPERIENCE OF GEORGE FOX. 141 

sion of all wars. But they urged me to accept their doc- 
trine, and thought T did but compliment them. But I told 
them I was come into the covenant of peace, which was 
bofore wars and strifes were. They said they offered it in 
love and kindness to me, because of my virtue ; and such 
like flattering words they used. But I told them if that 
was their love and kindness I trampled it under my feet. 
Then their rage got up, and they said, ' Take him away, 
jailer, and put him in a dungeon among the rogues and 
felons.' So I was taken away and put into a lousy, stink- 
ing place, without any bed, among thirty felons, where I 
was kept, almost half a year, unless it were at times ; for 
they would sometimes let me walk in the garden, having a 
belief that I would not go away. Now, when they had got 
me into Derby dungeon, it was the belief and saying of 
people that I should ne,ver come out ; but I had faith in 
God, and believed I should be delivered in His time ; for 
the Lord had said to me before, that I was not to be re- 
moved from that place yet, being s^t there for a service 
which He had for me to do. 

" After it became noised abroad that I was in Derby 
dungeon, my relations came to see me again ; and some 
thought I was insane, because I advocated purity, and 
righteousness, and perfection. 

" There was a great judgment upon the town, and the 
magistrates were uneasy about me ; but they could not 
agree what to do with me. One time they would have 
sent me up to the parliament ; another time they would 
have banished me to Ireland. At first they called me a 
deceiver, a seducer, and a blasphemer ; afterwards, when 
God had brought His plagues upon them, they said I was an 
honest, virtuous man. But their good or bad report, their 



142 REMARKABLE NARRATIVES. 

well or ill speaking, was nothing to me ; for the one did not 
lift me up, nor the other cast me down ; praised be the 
Lord ! At length they were made to turn me out of jail, 
about the beginning of winter in the year 1651, after I had 
been a prisoner in Derby almost a year, six months in the 
House of Correction, and the rest of the time in the com- 
mon jail and dungeon." 

His journal records the fact that one Lancashire and 
Yorkshire campaign produced twenty-four Friends, who 
spent their lives in salvation work. 

We can form but a faint idea in these quiet days of the 
fearful state of things that surrounded Fox and his friends. 
At one time there were more than ^500 Friends in prison, 
of whom no less than 2Jf5 died in jail. Just imagine what 
must have been the character of the conflict, when the 
authorities stripped female ministers to the waist, and 
lashed them through the towns in that condition till the 
blood ran down their backs. Space will not allow us to 
mention more than one of the judgments which fell upon 
some of their persecutors : u Then I came again to Thomas 
Taylor's, within three miles of Halifax, where was a meet- 
ing of about two hundred people, among which were many 
rude people, and divers butchers, several of whom had 
bound themselves with an oath before they came out, that 
they would kill me (as I was told) ; one of these butchers 
had been accused of killing a man and a woman. They 
came in a very rude manner, and made a great disturbance 
in the meeting. The meeting being in a field, Thomas 
Taylor stood up, and said to them, ' If you will be civil, 
you may stay, but, if not, I charge you to begone from off 
my ground/ But they were the worse, and said they 
would make it like a common ; and they yelled and made a 



THE EXPERIENCE OF GEORGE FOX. 143 

noise, as if they had been at a bear-baiting. They thrust 
Friends up and down ; and Friends, being peaceable, the 
Lord's power came over them. Several times they thrust 
me off from the place I stood on, by the crowding of the 
people together against me ; but still I was moved by the 
Lord to stand up again, as I was thrust down. 

" At last I was moved by the Lord to say to them, ' If 
they would discourse of the things of God, let them come 
up to me one by one ; and if they had anything to say or to 
object, I would answer them all, one after another,' but 
they were all silent, and had nothing to say. And then 
the Lord's power come so over them all, and answered the 
witness of God in them, that they were bound by the power 
of God; and a glorious, powerful meeting we had, and His 
power went over all, and the minds of the people were 
turned by the Spirit of God in them to God, and to Christ 
their teacher. The powerful word of Christ was largely 
declared that day ; and in the life and power of God we 
broke up our meeting ; and that rude company went their 
way to Halifax. The people asked them why they did not 
kill me, according to the oath they had sworn ; and thev 
maliciously answered, that I had so bewitched them that 
they could not do it. Thus was the devil chained at that 
time. Friends told ms that they used to come at other 
times and be very rude, and sometimes break their stools 
and seats, and make frightful work amongst them ; but the 
Lord's power had now bound them. Shortly after this the 
butcher that had been accused of killing a man and a 
woman before, and who was one of them that had bound 
himself by an oath to kill me, killed another man, and then 
was sent to York jail. 

"Another of those rude butchers who had also sworn to 



144 REMARKABLE NARRATIVES. 

kill me, having accustomed himself to thrust his tongue 
out of his mouth in derision of Friends when they passed 
by him, had it so swollen out of his mouth that he could 
never draw it in again, but died so." 

Penn, in his preface to " Fox's Journal," has given the 
following tribute to his lofty character : " He had an extra- 
ordinary gift in opening the Scriptures, but above all he 
excelled in prayer. The inwardness and weight of his 
speech, the reverence and solemnity of his address and 
behavior, and the trueness and fulness of his words, have 
often struck even strangers with admiration. The most 
awful, living reverent frame I ever felt or beheld, I must 
say was his prayer. He was of an innocent life, no busy- 
body, nor self-seeker, a most merciful man, as ready to for- 
give as unapt to give or take an offence, ... an 
incessant laborer ; as unwearied, so undaunted in his ser- 
vices for God and His people; he was no more to be moved 
to fear than to wrath ; civil beyond all forms of breeding, 
very temperate, eating little, and sleeping less, though a 
bulky person. He was a diligent student of the Word of 
God. He knew the Scriptures so well that it has been said 
of him, ' If the Bible should be lost, you could find it all in 
George's head/ " 



THE STARLESS CROWN. 145 



The Starless Crown, 

"They that turn many to righteousness shall shine as the stars 
forever and ever." — Dan. xii. 3. 

Wearied and worn with earthly cares, I yielded to repose, 
And soon before my raptured sight a glorious vision rose : 
I thought, while slumbering on my couch in midnight's 

solemn gloom, 
I heard an angel's silvery voice, and radiance filled my 

room. 

A gentle touch awakened me — a gentle whisper said, 
"Arise, O sleeper, follow me;" and through the air we 

fled; 
We left the earth so far away, that like a speck it seemed, 
And heavenly glory, calm and pure, across our pathway 

streamed. 

Still on we went — my soul was wrapped in silent ecstasy : 
I wondered what^Ehe end would be, what next should 

meet mine eye. 
I knew not how we journeyed through the pathless fields 

of light, 
When suddenly a change was wrought, and I was clothed 

in white. 

We stood before a city's walls, most glorious to behold ; 
We passed through gates of glistening pearl, o'er streets of 

purest gold ; 
It needed not the sun by day, the silver moon by night ; 
The glory of the Lord was there, the Lamb himself its 

light. 
10 



146 REMARKABLE NARRATIVES. 

Bright angels paced the shining streets, sweet music filled 

the air, 
And white-robed saints with glittering crowns from every 

clime were there ; 
And some that I had loved on earth stood with them 

round the throne, 
"All worthy is the Lamb," they sang, "the glory His 

alone." 

But fairer far than all besides I saw my Saviour's face ; 
And as I gazed He smiled on me with wondrous love and 

grace. 
Lowly I bowed before His throne, o'er joyed that I at last 
Had gained the object of my hopes ; that earth at length 

was past. 

And then in solemn tones He said, " Where is the 

diadem 
That ought to sparkle on thy brow — adorned with many a 

gem ? 
I know that thou hast believed on me, and life through me 

is thine ; 
But where are those radiant stars that in thy crown should 

shine ? 

"Yonder thou seest a glorious throng, and stars on every 

brow; 
For every soul they led to me they wear a jewel now. 
And such thy bright reward had been, if such had been 

thy deed, 
If thou hadst sought some wandering feet in paths of peace 

to lead. 



THE STARLESS CROWN. 147 

•* Thou wert not called that thou shouldst tread the way 
of life alone, 

But that the clear and shining light which round thy foot- 
steps shone 

Should guide some other weary feet to my bright home of 
rest, 

And thus, in blessing those around, thou hadst thyself 
been blest." 

The vision faded from my sight, the voice no longer spake, 
A spell seemed brooding o'er my soul which long I feared 

to break ; 
And when at last I gazed around in morning's glimmering 

light, 
My spirit fell o'erwhelmed beneath that vision's awful 

might. 

I rose and wept with chastened joy that yet I dwelt below, 
That yet another hour was mine, my faith by works to 

show ; 
That yet some sinner I might tell of Jesus' dying love, 
And help to lead some weary soul to seek a home above. 

And now while on the earth I stay, my motto this shall be, 
" To live no longer to myself, but Him who died for me ! " 
And graven on my inmost soul this word of truth divine, 
" They that turn many to the Lord bright as the stars shall 
shine" 

Ho, reapers of life's harvest ! Why stand with rusted 

blade 
Until the night draws round you, and day begins to fade 1 



148 REMARKABLE NARRATIVES. 

Why stand ye idle, waiting for reapers more to come ? 
The golden morn is passing, why sit ye idle, dumb ? 

Thrust in your sharpened sickle, and gather in the grain ; 
The night is fast approaching, and soon will come again. 
Thy Master calls for reapers, and shall He call in vain 1 
Shall sheaves lie there ungathered, and waste upon the 
plain ? 

Come down from hill and mountain, in morning's ruddy 

glow ; 
Nor wait until the dial points to the noon below ; 
And come with the strong sinew, nor faint in heat and cold ; 
And pause not till the evening draws round its wealth 

of gold. 

Mount up the heights of wisdom, and crush each error low ; 
Keep back no words of knowledge that human hearts 

should know. 
Be faithful to thy mission — the service of the Lord ; 
And then a golden chaplet shall be thy just reward. 



A Double Cure. 

Hark ! A light step, followed by a heavy tread, is 
approaching my study. What does it mean ? It is a cold 
freezing day in February, and it is Saturday — a very busy 
day for me. Well, I should think wife would entertain 
company in the parlor. But here she comes, followed by 
a person right from the State lunatic asylum — one that I 
had met with before. I must confess that I felt a little 



A DOUBLE CURE. 149 

strange with such company ; but I immediately arose and 
gave the brother my hand and said : M Good morning, 
Mr. Tan Benschoten ; how do you do ? " "I am well, 
bless God ! I called, Brother Osborne, to tell you what 
great things the Lord has done for me." He then gave me 
his experience, which is as follows : " I have been in the 
New York asylum for two years, and have been growing 
worse, so that for several months I have not been outside 
those prison walls. Recently, Mr. Gray, the superinten- 
dent, wrote my wife that I was an incurable case. Of 
course, I expected to remain incarcerated within those 
prison walls ; but what was still worse, I expected my 
reason to remain dethroned, which in the past had been 
periodically. But I was growing worse ; my body was 
quite emaciated ; I had lost my appetite, and in fact, I 
was full of fearful forebodings, a wretched man. My case 
was a sad one. Here I must suffer out this brief existence, 
in misery, pain, sorrow, shame and remorse, and then an 
eternity with devils and damned spirits ; and all this 
brought on by my own licentiousness. ' O wretched man 
that I am ! who shall deliver me from the body of this 
death 1 ' A companion in tribulation said to me, the Lord 
can heal you, soul and body, and gave me this passage of 
Scripture : ' And the praj^er of faith shall save the sick, 
and the Lord shall raise him up ; and if he has committed 
sins, they shall be forgiven him.' I thought, that just 
covers my case — but how, to make it available ? I was told 
by my comrade in distress, that I must fast and pray, 
which I did, until I wore my knees sore. I was then 
watched very narrowly, and prohibited from getting upon 
my knees ; and finally, I was shut up at night in a crib in 
order to prevent — as I suppose the doctors viewed it — a 



150 REMARKABLE NARRATIVES. 

further development of my new phase of insanity. The 
crib is something like a large cradle without rocker — with 
a co^er of slats that shut over the top, and is locked down 
when occupied by anyone. While in this condition, I was 
led to think of God's goodness to me in sparing my life so 
long, and I a rebel against Him. 

' I thought of the effort I had been making to get to 
Him ; my sins had appeared in dreadful array, which I 
loathed with all my heart. I felt that there was real 
godly sorrow in me. I had besought the Lord to pardon 
my sins and heal my body. I believed that He was able to 
do it; yea, I thought that He was willing to do it ; I thought 
of the promise, ' The prayer of faith shall save the sick/ 
etc. I said, O Lord, why not now ! they have locked me 
up to prevent my getting upon my knees ; but can't the 
Lord bless me lying on my back ? Can't the Almighty 
come right through these slats ? 

" I heard a voice saying, Yes, He can. The next moment 
I was believing in God with all my heart. Something said, 
Why not believe that God will do His work, and do it now f 
I said, Lord, thou wilt do it now ! Just then I felt a very 
strange sensation going all through my body, and with it 
a conviction that the work was done. I felt it all through 
my soul and body. It flowed from my heart like oil from 
a flowing well, and continued to bubble up just as Jesus 
promised it should do. ' The water that I give you shall 
be in you a well of water, springing up unto everlasting 
life.' Praise our God forever. The next morning, soon 
a&er coming out of the crib, I met the head physician. 
He said, ' Good morning, Yan ; how are you V 'I am well, 
I replied — glory to God ! ' ' Yan, what do you mean V ' I 
mean that the good Lord came right down into my crib 



LEAD, KINDLY LIGHT. 15.1 

last night and He healed my soul and body — glory to God ! ' 
The doctor looked wild and said, ' Van, be careful, or we 
shall put you up in No. ll/ w (The hall where the incurable 
cases were kept.) The brother constantly affirmed that 
God had made him whole, every whit. Within four weeks 
from the time the superintendent wrote this brother's wife 
that her husband was incurable, he wrote her that he was 
so much better that she could come after him, but did not 
state how he was cured. 

Three years after I met this brother on the cars. His 
first utterances were, as I approached him, " Glory to God, 
Brother Osborne, the Lord saves me, soul and body." He 
said that he had not had a symptom of his old disease since 
his last night in the crib. Our God is mightv to save. 
— From Born of the Spirit, by Rev. Zenas Osborne. 



Lead, Kindly Light. 

The author of this beautiful poem is now Cardinal Newman. 
It was probably written before b»3 left the English Church 
for the Roman Catholic. It is sometimes printed with but 
three verses. Here it appears in full. 

Lead, kindly light, amid the encircling gloom, 

Lead thou me on ; 
The night is dark, and I am far from home ; 

Lead thou me on ; 
Keep thou my feet ; I do not ask to see 
The distant scene ; one step's enough for me. 



152 REMARKABLE NARRATIVES. 

I was not ever thus, nor prayed that thou 
Shouldst lead me on ; 

I loved to choose and see my path ; but now- 
Lead thou me on ; 

I loved the garish day, and, spite of fears, 

Pride ruled my will. Remember not past years ! 

So long thy power has blessed me, sure it still 

Will lead me on 
O'er moor and fen, o'er crag and torrent till 

The night is gone ; 
And with the morn those angel faces smile 
Which I have loved long since, and lost awhile ! 

Meanwhile, along the narrow, rugged path 

Thyself hast trod, 
Lead, Saviour, lead me home in childlike faith, 

Home to my God, 
To rest forever, after earthly strife, 
In the calm light of everlasting life 



44 Praying Johnny." 

John Oxtoby was born at Little Givendale, Yorkshire, 
England, in 1762. In early youth his education, through 
the poverty of his parents, was much neglected. He passed 
the first thirty-seven years of his life in great ignorance of 
himself and his God, and was characterized by awful 
wickedness. In the year 1801, he was led to see his dread- 
ful condition, and after "having drunk deeply of the bitter 
cup of repentance, he was soundly converted to God 



"PRAYING JOHNNY." 153 

Immediately he began laboring for the salvation of his 
neighbors, and visited from house to house, declaring what 
great things God had done for his soul. He became as 
zealous for the salvation of souls as he had been in the 
service of sin. His bowels moved with compassion toward 
the unsaved, and he spared no pains to snatch them from 
the jaws of death. He gave up his agricultural employ- 
ment, and devoted himself entirely to zealous labors in the 
vineyard of Christ. Realizing union of soul with the 
Primitive Methodists, and seeing a career of usefulness 
among them, he cast in his lot with these people, and 
shortly after was employed as a travelling preacher. 
His journal shows that on every circuit which was pri- 
vileged to enjoy his labors, there were gieat displays of 
converting and sanctifying power. At nearly every meet- 
ing which he held, some were converted or sanctified. His 
success was indeed glorious. The most powerful manifes- 
tations of the divine goodness and mercy were vouchsafed 
to his labors ; and multitudes fell under the power of God 
while listening to the messages which came from his lips. 

During a visit of three days he made to a certain town, 
no less than fifty souls were soundly converted to God by 
his instrumentality. 

Seldom has God more signally owned His servants than 
He owned him. His fame as a soul-saving minister of God 
passed before him wherever he was stationed ; the news of 
his mighty success new like light from one place to another. 
The hardened, the curious, the careless and formal were 
eager to hear him, and went and were saved. " Hundreds, 
yes, thousands, of precious souls has he led to the Lamb of 
God," says one of his colleagues, who bears testimony to 
his usefulness — which attended him to the end of his life. 



154 KEM ARK ABLE NARRATIVES. 

His biographer — Harvey Leigh — from whose accounts 
the above have been extracted, thus depicts the character 
of this holy man : 

His most usual theme in the pulpit was faith. He had 
such a facility of accommodating and reducing his expres- 
sions relative to this important grace to the apprehension . 
of the lowest capacity, that everyone was enabled to profit 
considerably under him if at all attentive. 

But that which gave lasting effect to all his labors in the 
Lord's vineyard was the uncommon power of the Spirit 
which attended his word. Seldom or never did he open his 
mouth either in preaching, praying or personal conversation, 
but such an unction attended his words that those addressed 
by him usually felt its force. Not unf requently have num- 
bers fallen under his preaching and prayers, and apparently 
under the most striking apprehensions of their sin and 
danger, they have cried out for mercy. Others who have 
with great difficulty escaped home, have been obliged to 
send for him or others to pray for them before they durst 
attempt to sleep ; and, strange as it may seem, some have 
fallen down on their way home, and others at their work, 
from the effect of his preaching and prayers. 

Thus while he had no superior mental capabilities for the 
pulpit, he was attended with the most powerful influences 
of the Holy Spirit : and this made him, in the absence of 
other qualifications, an able minister of the New Testament. 
But, while he did not shine in the things to which we have 
referred, he did excel in the strength and constancy of his 
faith, tvhich was singularity strong. Perhaps in this he was 
second to none. He was a genuine son of Abraham ; for 
he did not stagger at the promises, but credited them with 
i confidence unshaken, and which gave glory to God. 



" PRAYING JOHNNY." 155 

The strength of his faith was witnessed in the evenness 
and comfort of his own religious experience. That faith 
by which John first drew near to God, and by which he 
realized a clear sense of His pardoning mercy, was pos- 
sessed by him with great steadiness during the whole of 
his earthly pilgrimage. Hence he constantly pursued his 
heavenly course, was delivered from cloudy depressions and 
tormenting fears, and laughed at apparent impossibilities. 

Likewise the strength of his faith was evidenced in the 
facility which he had in leading souls to Christ for pardon. 
The moment he met with a broken-hearted sinner he urged 
him to look with steady faith to the Lamb of God, which 
taketh away the sins of the world. In doing this, his 
expressions were at times strong and singular. Once, when 
travailing with a young man in the pangs of the new birth, 
he endeavored, in his usual way, to lead him into confi- 
dence ; and, feeling much of the divine presence, he felt 
confident that the power of God was there to heal, and 
that the struggle was near a close. He consequently cried 
aloud to him, " Say that thou belie vest." The young man 
said, "I dare not; if I were to, I should tell God a lie." 
Brother Oxtoby, however, urged again, " Tell God that 
thou belie vest, and put the lie upon my back." Strange as 
this may appear, the youth, in a few minutes, ventured his 
all upon the atoning blood, and experienced the pardon of 
all his sins. 

The strength of his faith was further evidenced in his 
being instrumental in raising the sick from their diseased 
condition. To a number of such persons under such cir- 
cumstances, he was called in ; and, in many cases, his visits 
were crowned with the most perfect success. He had been 
heard to mention instances in which his confidence had 



156 KEMARKABLE NARRATIVES. 

triumphed over maladies the most hopeless and discourag- 
ing ; diseases in the limbs, which had been dreadful and 
inveterate ; and even fevers, whose aspects have been the 
most raging and forbidding. In many cases the results of 
his faith have silenced every objector, and struck numbers 
with the most perfect amazement. 

But our brother was an extraordinary man in the 
importunity and prevalency of his prayers. What has 
been said of the strength and constancy of his faith may 
be said, with equal propriety, of his importunate and pre- 
valent prayers ; that is, he was second to none. In fact, 
we need not be surprised at this, for generally these two 
excellences walk hand in hand. For some years he was 
known in the religious world to thousands by the singular 
name of "Praying Johnny? This epithet he justified in 
the whole of his conduct. His prayers were long and very 
fervent in his own closet. Mr. Bottomley, who was 
stationed with him in the Halifax circuit, says : " During 
the time of his stay at Halifax, he was much given up to 
prayer, and generally spent about six hours each day upon 
his knees, pleading earnestly with God, in behalf of him- 
self, the Church and sinners, whose salvation he most 
ardently desired." 

Frequently, when harassed by any particular temptation, 
when concerned about the temporal condition of any person 
in dangerous affliction, when under engagement to pray for 
one who was troubled with an evil spirit, when foiled in 
some late attempt to do good, when travailing in anguish 
of mind for a revival of religion in the neighborhood in 
which he was laboring, and when deeply anxious to see the 
glory of the L*>rd revealed, he spent many hours in the 
most decided abstinence and secluded retirement, and 



"PRAYING JOHNNY/' 157 

sometimes, in this manner, devoted whole days and nights 
to God. 

In the 'public services of the sanctuary John had great 
influence with God in prayer. In answer to the earnest 
breathings of his soul a whole assembly has been moved as 
the trees of a wood are moved when shaken with a strong 
wind. A mighty shaking was felt, and a great noise 
heard, amongst the dry bones. The breath of Jehovah 
was felt, numbers among the slain were quickened, and a 
great army was raised up. 

A strange fact connected with the history of this good 
man, and strikingly illustrative of his close communion 
with God in prayer, and of the results of such communion, 
we shall here relate. When in Hull circuit he visited 
Burlington Quay, and was rendered eminently useful. 
When there, his home was with Mr. Stephenson, whose 
family was one of the most influential in the place. Their 
mercantile engagements were numerous ; at home they car- 
ried on a considerable business, and were extensively con- 
nected with the shipping department. About the year 
1825, Mr. Stephenson had a ship at sea, on a foreign and 
distant voyage, about the safety of which he and the family 
began to feel anxious. There had not been any tidings of 
the vessel extending over a period far beyond what they 
had expected. And what tended much to increase their 
solicitude, they had a son on board for whom they feared 
the worst — feared that they should see him no more. At 
this time Mr. Ox toby was sojourning in the family, and 
was painfully concerned at witnessing their anxiety. 
Pressed in spirit for them, and desirous to be the instru- 
ment of their relief, he fell back upon his usual and safe 
resort — special fasting and protracted prayer to God — in 



158 REMARKABLE NARRATIVES. 

which he besought the Almighty to give him an assurance 
whether the ship was really lost, or whether it would return 
home in safety. In his protracted travail, he clearly ascer- 
tained that the ship which had been the object of so much 
solicitude was not lost, but that it and the son for whose 
safety the family were so anxious, would, in due time, 
return in safety, and that all would be well. This wel- 
come intelligence he communicated to the anxious family ; 
and did it with as much confidence as characterized St. 
Paul's mind, when he uttered his noble speech to the em- 
barrassed ship's crew, while they drew near to the Island 
of Melita, and, contrary to all human appearance, assured 
them that not a hair of their heads should perish. But 
high as our brother stood in the estimation of the family, 
and exalted as was their opinion of his extraordinary piety, 
and the power and prevalency of his prayers, yet his calm 
and positive assertions on this subject almost exceeded the 
powers of their belief ; and though they did not distrust 
them, they staggered at them. But John remained un- 
moved. He smiled at their doubts ; reiterated his expres- 
sions of confidence ; told them that God had " shown him 
the ship while at prayer ; " that he was as certain of her 
safe return as if it were in the harbor then ; and that when 
the vessel returned, though he had never seen it, excepting 
when revealed to him in prayer, he should know it, and 
could easily distinguish it from any other. Time rolled on, 
Mr. Oxtoby pursued his work, and the family remained 
anxious, till news reached them, one day, that the vessel 
was safe on its way home. It soon after arrived, at which 
time Mr. Oxtoby was about ten miles distant in the coun- 
try. The Stephenson family were, however, so delighted 



"PRAYING JOHNNY." 159 

with the occurrence — with the realization of all their de- 
voted friend had uttered — with the accomplishment of 
what, to them, appeared like a prediction, and from which 
the good man had never wavered — no, not for a moment — 
that a gig was immediately sent for him, by which he was 
to return with the least possible delay. "When he reached 
Burlington Quay, Mr. Stephenson asked him if he should 
know the ship about which he had sought divine counsel, 
providing he could see it. "I should," said John ; " God 
so clearly revealed it to me in prayer, that I could distin- 
guish it among a hundred." They then walked out on the 
pier, and on their left were many vessels, some near and 
some remote, floating at anchor in the spacious bay. 
Among them Mr. Oxtoby looked, and exclaimed, while 
pointing in a certain direction, " That's the ship which God 
showed me while in prayer. I knew it would come home 
safely, and that I should see it." We need scarcely add 
that in this he was correct ; and that this last particular of 
the strange account filled Mr. Stephenson with overwhelm- 
ing amazement. 

Mr. Oxtoby was likewise a man of burning zeal. During 
the last ten years of his life, in journeying to his appoint- 
ments, he walked many thousands of miles. In family 
visiting he was very regular; and has sometimes visited 
such a number in one day as would almost transcend a 
person's belief. While engaged in this way, his exercises 
in prayer and exhortation were beyond measure. He en- 
tered in at every open door, scattering life and salvation 
wherever he could ; doing work for God, making hell to feel 
the influence of his exertions, snatching souls from the 
fangs of the enemy, and endeavoring to prevent their eternal 
engulf ment in the abyss of woe. 



160 REMARKABLE NARRATIVES. 

Moreover, Mr. Oxtoby was in every respect a matured 
Christian. He arrived at, that state of grace which is 
implied in being " strong in the Lord." His spiritual at- 
tainments and enjoyments were deep, constant, and in- 
creasing. He saw the glorious possibility of being filled 
with the fulness of God, and of being perfect as his 
heavenly Father. He " went on to perfection." In this 
healthful state of soul, this entire freedom from inward 
evil, this power to rejoice evermore, to pray without ceasing, 
and in everything to give thanks, this unction of the Holy 
One, which taught him all things, this dwelling in God and 
walking in the light as He is in the light, this ability to 
love God with all his heart, and to do His will on earth as 
it is done in heaven — in this glorious state he lived for 
many years. John Oxtoby is now regarded as one of the 
great men of Methodism. During the whole of the afflic- 
tion which hastened his death he had the most glorious 
displays of the divine favor : he received such a baptism of 
the Holy Ghost that his soul was filled with peace and joy 
unutterable. Amidst the sinkings of mortality, the sor- 
rowing of his friends, and his near approach to eternity, he 
entered the vale of death in glorious triumph. 



THE JUDGMENT DAY. 161 



The Judgment Day. 

The following was written by Rev. Rowland Hill, and 
posted up as a play bill at Richmond, England, June 4th, 
1774, close to the play bills of the day, and helped to close 
f Jae theatre : 

BY COMMAND OF THE KING OF KINGS 
And at the Desire of all who Love His Appearing. 



AT THE THEATRE OF THE UNIVERSE, 

On the Eve of Time, will he performed the 
GREAT ASSIZE OR DAY OF JUDGMENT. 



The Scenery, which is now actually heing prepared, will not 
only surpass anything that has yet been seen, but will infinitely 
exceed the utmost stretch of human conception. There will be a 

just REPRKSENTATION Of ALL THE INHABITANTS of the WORLD, in 

their various and proper Colors, and their Customs and Manners 
will be so exactly and so minutely delineated that the most secret 
thoughts will be discovered. 

" For God shall bring every work into judgment, with every secret 

thing, whether it be GOOD, or whether it be 

EVIL."— Eccles. xii. 14. 

THIS THEATRE WILL BE LAID OUT AFTER A NEW PLAN 

AND WILL CONSIST OF 

PIT AND GALLERY 

Only ; and, contrary to all others, the Gallery is fitted up for the 
reception of People of High (or Heavenly) Birth, and the Pit for 
those of Low (or earthly) Rank. N.B. — The Gallery is very spa- 
cious, and the Pit without bottom. 

To prevent inconvenience, there are separate Doors for admitting 
the company ; and they are so different that none can mistake that 
are not wjlfully blind. The Door which opens into the Gallery is 

11 



162 REMARKABLE NARRATIVES. 

very narrow, and the steps up to it are somewhat difficult •; for 
which reason there are seldom many people about it. But the 
Door that gives entrance into the Pit is very wide, and very com- 
modious and such numbers flock to it that it is generally crowded. 
N.B. — The straight Door leads towards the right hand, and the 
broad one to the left. It will be in vain for one in a tinselled coat 
and borrowed language to personate one of High Birth, in order 
to get admittance into the upper place, for there is oxe of a won- 
derful and deep penetiation who will search and examine every 
individual, and all who are not savingly converted, but die in their 
sins, all who are not "born again ' and baptized with the Holy 
Ghost, must be turned in at the left-hand Door. 

Principal Performeks : 

Judge The Son of Urod 

Jurymen The Saints of the Most High. 

! Drunkards, Swearers, Sabbath-breakers, Lovers 
of Sinful Pleasures, Fornicators, the Fearful and 
Unbelieving, and Whosoever loveth and maketh 
a Lie. 
Witnesses. ..Angels, Ministers, Conscience, and The Word of God 

Gaoler Abaddon 

Ministers of Vengeance Angels of the Bottomless Pit. 



ACT FIRST - 

Of this Grand and So" emu Piece will be opened by 

^ ARCHANGEL WITH THE TRUMP OF GOD. 

"For the Trumpet shall sound and the dead shall be raised." 

1 Cor. xv. 52. 

ACT PECO N'T), 

A PROCESSION OF SAINTS 

In White, with Golden Harps, accompanied with shouts of 
joy and songs of praise. 

ACT THIRD, 

AN ASSEMBLAGE OF ALL THE UNREGENERATE, 

The accompaniments will chiefly consist of Cries, Weeping, 
Wailing, Mourning. Lamentation and Woe. 



THE JUDGMENT DAY. 



163 



TO CONCLUDE WITH AN ADDRESS B. 

THE SON OF MAN 

John v. 2*/. 
It is written in the 25th of Matthew, from the 34th verse to the 
end of the chapter ; but for the sake of those who seldom read the 
Scriptures, two verses are here transcribed : 



Then shall the King say to 
them on his right hand : Come, 
ye blessed of my Father, inherit 
the kingdom prepared for you 
from the foundation of the world. 



Then shall He say unto them 
upon his left hand : Depart from 
me, ye cursed, into everlasting 
fire, prepared for the devil and 
his 



angels. 



AFTER WHICH THE CURTAIN WILL DROP. 



John v. 28, 29 . 
Rev. v. 8, 9 ; xix. 3, 4 
Luke xvi. 22, 23 



. . . Then, oh, to tell ! 
Some raised on high, and others doom'd to 

hell ! 
These praise the Lamb, and sing redeeming 

Love, 
Lodged in His bosom, all His goodness 
prove ; 
Luke xx. 14-27 . While those who trampled under foot His 

Matt. xxv. 30 ; 2 Thess. grace, 

i. 9 . . Are banished now forever from His face ; 

Luke xvi. 26 . . Divided thus, a gulf is fixed between, 
Matt. xxv. 46 . . And (everlasting) closes up the scene. 

"Oh, that they were wise, that they understood this, that they 
would consider their latter end ! " — Deut. xxxii. 29. 



Tickets for the Pit are sold at every place of Temptation, 
where the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride 
of life are displayed. The Price is giving way to these tilings, and 
sinning against God, " For thus saith the Lord, the soul that 
sinneth it shall die." — Ezek. xviii. 20. 

Tickets for the Gallery may be had gratis at the " Fountain 
open for sin and uncleanness," but will only be given to those who 
are willing to deny all ungodliness, and take up the Cross daily, 
forsake all unrighteousness, and follow Christ. Tickets not trans- 
ferable. No money will be taken at the door, and all who are 
admitted into the Galleries must be sprinkled with the Blood of 
Christ, and sealed with Immanuel's Signet, therefore, " Prepare to 
meet thy God," Amos iv. 12. " For in such an hour as ye think 
not the Son of Man cometh." — Matt. xxiv. 44. 



164 REMARKABLE NARRATIVES. 



Prevailing Prayer. 

Fervent means " warm, burning," and effectual fervent 
prayer, that which attains the blessing it seeks. The 
following are two striking examples : 

About the year 1759, John Ryland, senior, father of 
the noted Dr. Ryland, being advanced in years, resigned 
his pastorage of the church in Warwick, removing to 
Northampton, where for twenty-six years he devoted him- 
self to the conduct of a boys' seminary or boarding-school. 
It was during this period, sometime about the year 1790, 
that an incident occurred which so deeply impressed those 
present, that one of the eye-witnesses, after some thirty 
years, related it to a Christian friend, who, nearly forty 
years later, contributed it to the columns of the Watchman 
and Reflector : 

"The venerable minister, to the great regret of his 
friends, was, unhappily, sometimes imprudent in reference to 
his pecuniary expenditure, and, as the result, was not unfre- 
quently in difficulties. He had contracted a debt with his 
baker, and had paid it, but a second claim was made upon 
him for the amount. He was sure he had paid it, but un- 
happily, could produce no receipt for the money. The 
baker called upon him with a public officer, and placed 
before his choice the immediate payment of the debt, or an 
immediate lodgment in prison. Two or three of his friends 
happened to be with him when these persons arrived, and 
heard the protracted and earnest conversation. The good 
man's declaration as to payment weighed nothing without- 
the receipt, which, unhappily, seemed gone forever. The 
baker and the officer at length denounced the venerable 



PREVAILING PRAYER. 165 

man as a hypocrite, swore at his religion, and prepared to 
convey him to the county jail for the debt. Here was 
indeed a crisis, and at its height the grey-haired minister 
knelt down at the table in the midst of them all and 
prayed — 

" * O Lord, appear for thy servant ; thy name is 
blasphemed, and Thy cause is injured. O Lord, for thy 
name's sake tell me where that receipt is.' He paused a few 
moments, rose with the utmost calmness from his knees, 
and went direct to a closet, and opening a box there, he 
brought from it the document. He had never before placed 
such a paper in that place, nor had he the slightest idea 
till his prayer ascended to heaven that it was there. His 
enemies were confounded, while he and his friends rejoiced 
in the goodness of God ; for it made an impression on the 
minds even of the ungodly, which could never be forgotten. 
We do not envy the man who does not believe this to have 
been an answer to prayer." 

Not long ago an engineer brought his train to a stand- 
still at a little Massachusetts village, where the passengers 
have five minutes for lunch. A lady came along the plat- 
form and said : " The conductor tells me the train at the 
junction in P. leaves fifteen minutes before our arrival. It 
is Saturday night ; this is the last train. I have a sick 
child in the car, and no money for a hotel, and none for a 
private conveyance, a long, long way into the country. 
What shall I doT' 

" Well," said the engineer, " I wish I could tell you." 

" Would it be possible for you to hurry a little 1 " said the 
anxious, tearful mother. 

"No, madam, I have the time-table and the rules say I 
must run by it." 



166 REMARKABLE NARRATIVES. 

She turned sorrowfully away, leaving the bronze face of 
the engineer wet with tears. Presently she returned and 
said, " Are you a Christian ? " 

"I trust I am," was the reply. 

" Will you pray with me that the Lord will in some way 
detain the train at the junction ? " 

" Why, yes, I will pray with you, but I have not much 
faith." 

Just then the conductor cried, " All aboard." The poor 
woman hurried back to the deformed and sick child, and 
away went the train climbing the grade. 

"Somehow," said the engineer, " everything worked like 
a charm. As I prayed I couldn't help letting my engine 
out just a little. We hardly stopped at the next station, 
people got on and off with wonderful alacrity, the conduc- 
tor's lantern was in the air in half a minute, and then 
away again. Once over the summit it was dreadfully easy 
to give her a little more, and then a little more, as I prayed, 
till she seemed to shoot through the air like an arrow. 
Somehow I could not hold her, knowing I had the road, 
and so we dashed up to the junction just six minutes 
ahead of time." 

There stood the other train and the conductor with the 
lantern on his arm. " Well," said he, " will you tell me 
what I am waiting here for. Somehow I felt I must await 
your coming to-night, but I don't know why." "I guess," 
said the brother conductor, "it is for this poor woman, with 
her sick and deformed child, dreadful anxious to get home 
this Saturday night." But the man on the engine and the 
grateful mother think they can tell why the train waited. 

Please note also the following Scripture examples of 
prevailing prayer : 



PREVAILING PRAYER. 167 

" And when Moses prayed unto the Lord, the fire was 
quenched." — Num. xi. 12. 

" I will call unto the Lord, and he shall send thunder 
and rain, ... So Samuel called unto the Lord ; and 
the Lord sent thunder and rain that day." — 1 Sam. xii. 
17, 18. 

" And the king answered and said unto the man of God, 
Entreat now the face of the Lord thy God, and pray for 
me that my hand may be restored me again. And the 
man of God besought the Lord, and the king's hand was 
restored him again, and became as it was before." — 1 Kings 
xiii. 6. 

" He went in, therefore, and shut the door upon them 
twain, and prayed unto the Lord . . . and the child 
sneezed seven times and opened his eyes." — 2 Kings iv. 
33-35. 

" And Hezekiah prayed before the Lord and said . 
Then Isaiah sent to Hezekiah saying, Thus saith the Lord 
God of Israel, that which thou hast prayed to me against 
Sennacherib, king of Assyria, I have heard."' — 2 Kings xix. 
5-20. 

The necessity and importance of perseverance in prayer 
in order to its being effectual, receives abundant illustration 
from the Scripture and from other sources. We readily 
admit that prayer is often answered on the instant of its 
being presented. But the Bible, Christian biography, 
observation, and personal experience present numerous 
and incontrovertible evidence that frequently perseverance 
— sometimes long-continued perseverance — is absolutely 
and indispensably necessary to success therein. 

In the thirty-second and thirty-third chapters of Genesis 
we peruse the deeply interesting narrative of Jacob's 



168 REMARKABLE NARRATIVES. 

night-long supplication with the " angel of the covenant." 
Here is a prayer, which for fervency and earnestness, was 
never, perhaps, surpassed, except, perhaps, in the case of 
the " Man of sorrows," bowed down with anguish, in 
Gethsemane's garden. But, notwithstanding there was 
here every essential of truly Scriptural prayer, it was not 
until after many hours of earnest pleading, not until the 
break of day, that the suppliant prevailed. 

The prayer of Elijah at Mount Carmel, 1 Kings xviii. 
42-45, furnishes us with another illustration of this view of 
prayer. Six times in succession, Elijah's servant ascends 
the summit of Carmel, from whence he looks forth for 
indications of an answer to his master's prayer. But on 
each successive occasion he returns with the response, 
"No appearance of rain." But he who had power — by 
prayer — to shut and to open the windows of heaven, con- 
tinues his fervent intercessions for rain, the servant 
ascends the memorable mountain the seventh time, and 
soon returns with the cheering report of the little cloud 
discernible upon the horizon. Soon that cloud overspreads 
the sky, and is speedily succeeded by the " sound of 
abundance of rain." Comment is unnecessary. 

The importunate widow, mentioned in Luke xvii., and 
the narrative of the Syrophcenician woman recorded in 
Matt. xv. 21-28, teach the same important lesson of 
perseverance. 



A PERSECUTING HUSBAND SAVED. 169 



A Persecuting Husband Saved. 

A poor woman, at Berwick, St. John, in Wiltshire, 
England, the wife of a day laborer, having found the 
Lord, her husband became a bitter persecutor, and because 
his wife would not relinquish the service of God, he fre- 
quently turned her out of doors in the night, and during 
the winter season. The wife, being a prudent woman, did 
not expose his cruelty to her neighbors, but on the contrary, 
to avoid their observation, she went into the adjacent 
fields and betook herself to pra} T er. Greatly distressed, but 
not in despair, her only encouragement was, that with God 
all things are possible. She, therefore, resolved to set apart 
an hour each day to pray for the conversion of her perse- 
cuting husband. This she was enabled to do without 
missing a single day for a whole year. Seeing no change 
in her husband she formed a second resolution to persevere 
six months longer, which she did up to the last day, when 
she retired about twelve o'clock as usual, and as she 
thought for the last time. Fearing that her wishes, in 
this instance, might be contrary to the will of God, she 
resolved to call no more upon Him. Her desire not being 
granted, her expectation appeared to be cut off. That same 
day her husband returned from his labor in a state of deep 
dejection, and instead of sitting down as usual to his 
dinner, he proceeded directly to his chamber. His wife 
followed and heard, to her grateful astonishment, that he 
who used to mock, had retired to pray. 

The husband came down stairs, but refused to eat, and 
returned again to his labor until the evening. WIhmi 
again he came horn 3, his wife affectionately asked him, 



170 REMARKABLE NARRATIVES 

11 What is the matter ? " " Matter enough," said he, " I'm 
a lost sinner. About twelve o'clock this morning," con- 
tinued the man, " I was at my work and a passage of 
Scripture was deeply impressed upon my mind, which I 
cannot get rid of, and I am sure I am lost." 

His wife encouraged him to pray, but he replied, " Oh, 
wife, it is of no use, there is no forgiveness for me." 
Smitten with remorse at the recollection of his former con- 
duct, he said to her, "Will you forgive me?" She 
replied, "Oh, yes." "Will you pray for me now?" 
" That I will, with all my heart." They instantly fell on 
their knees and wept, and made supplication. His tears 
of penitence mingled with her tears of gratitude and joy. 
He became decidedly pious, and afterwards greatly exerted 
himself to make his neighbors acquainted with the way of 
salvation by Jesus Christ. — Rev. ~R. Donkersly in Earnest 
Christian, September, 1867. 



Eleven Hundred Testaments Put in 
Circulation by a Single Tract. 

The following fact, which came under the personal ob- 
servation of a member of a society recently formed in 
Glasgow, Scotland, for printing and distributing religious 
tracts in France, is related by the Committee of the 
American Tract Society in their appeal to the Christian 
public : 

A translation of the tract, " Serious Thoughts on Eter- 
nity," had found its way into the shop of Mr. B , a 

manufacturer of considerable influence and property in 



ELEVEN HUNDRED TESTAMENTS, ETC. 1^1 

B , in the south of France, a town containing, without 

a single exception, a thoroughly popish community. He 
took it up and read it ; it alarmed him, and he read it 
again. He pondered much over it for some time, as it was 
the only book of the kind that had ever fallen in his way. 
In this tract were several references to the New Testa- 
ment ; this was a book he had never seen, and he longed 
to search further into a subject which now appeared to 
him of immense moment. He searched every store in town 
to see if they contained such a book, and at last, in the 
shop of a bookseller, to whom a Protestant clergyman had 
sent a few copies, with the faint hope that they might 
meet a purchaser, he discovered the volume he wanted. 
He read the tract again, and consulted in the New 
Testament all the passages referred to. He pondered what 
these things could mean. He was awakened to a serious 
concern for his immortal soul, and the New Testament was 
now his constant study. At length he thought with 
himself, Are there none that are concerned about these 
truths 1 and he concluded that the individual who had 
sent the New Testament to the bookseller must surely feel 
their importance and value. He made the necessary 
inquiries, and found that it had been sent by the Pro- 
testant clergyman at T . He wrote to a friend in the 

same town, requesting him to call upon the clergyman 
to say that he had seen the New Testament, and was 
desirous of corresponding with him on the subjects 
contained in it. Of this invitation the clergyman gladly 
availed himself, and commenced a correspondence, which 
was not speedily terminated. Mr. B's heart was touched 
by the influence of the Holy Spirit, and his mind gradually 
opened to a knowledge of divine things. He left the 



172 REMARKABLE NARRATIVES. 

Romish communion, and is now a most useful and devoted 
servant of the Lord Jesus. By a letter lately received, 
he had sold, at reduced prices, in the town where 
he resided and villages arouu^l, upwards of eleven hundred 
New Testaments, and had also sold and distributed 
several thousands of religious tracts. He has been the 
means likewise, it is added, of awakening the attention of 
several of his friends to a concern for their souls, and 
among others of two popish priests, who, although they 
have not left the Church of Rome, are now active in 
exhorting their parishioners to read the Scriptures. Thus 
it is that, by the blessing of God, one single tract has been 
the means of the circulation of eleven hundred New Testa- 
ments , several thousand tracts, the conversion of at least 
one individual, and the awakening, and it is to be hoped 
the conversion also, of two popish priests. 

Tract Societies, writes a clergyman of the West, are, 
under God, the hope of this land, and will be for years. 
The inhabitants are so mixed and multiform in their 
religions, that except in a comparatively few favored spots, 
there are scarcely enough active Christians of any one 
denomination to support the preached Gospel. Nor are 
they a reading people. A book is too voluminous to read. 

Tracts meet precisely our wants. They preach without 
pay, and they preach without fear, and they preach by 
day and at night, and they preach to parents and chil- 
dren. They preach short sermons and plain ; and they can 
be changed frequently and at small expense ; and they 
stop while the hearer is sleeping, or when he grows 
impatient, and begin again when he is ready to hear. And 
they can bear insults without repining, and favor without 
becoming vain ; contempt, and scorn and poverty present 



EXALTED PIETY. 173 

to them no terrors ; they rest as comfortably in the un- 
thatched cabin as in citizens' palaces, and live as happily 
with the poor as those who fare sumptuously. They have 
no ears to hearken to terrible reports of fevers and pesti- 
lences in the wilds of the West. Their sympathies are 
not confined to them that can best pay them, nor their 
efforts to saving those who best entertain them. No. 
They go forth in the spirit of Gospel preachers — to the 
broken-hearted, to the lost — those wandering upon the 
mountains and in the wilderness ; they go to preach the 
Gospel to the poor. 



Exalted Piety. 

For full salvation the Rev. Jchn Fletcher thus prayed : 
" Suddenly come into thy temple. Turn out all that offends 
the eyes of thy purity, and destroy all that keeps me out of 
the rest which remains for thy Christian people ; so shall 
I keep a spiritual Sabbath, a Christian jubilee to the God 
of my life ; so shall I witness my share in the oil of joy 
with which thou anointest perfect Christians above their 
fellow-believers. I stand in need of that oil, Lord ; my 
lamp burns dimly. Sometimes it seems to be gone out, as 
that of the foolish virgins ; it is more like a smoking flax 
than a burning and a shining light. Oh, quench it not ! 
raise it to a flame. 

" Thou knowest that I do believe in thee ; the trembling 
hand of faith holds thee ; and though I have ten thousand 
times ^grieved thy pardoning love, thine everlasting arm is 
still under me to redeem my life from destruction, while 



174 REMARKABLE NARRATIVES. 

thy right hand is over me to crown me with mercies and 
loving-kindness. But, alas ! I am neither sufficiently 
thankful for thy present mercies, nor sufficiently athirst 
for thy future favors. Hence, I feel an aching void in my 
soul, being conscious that I have not attained the heights 
of grace described in thy Word, and enjoyed by thy 
holiest servants. Their deep experiences, diligences, and 
the ardor with which they endured the cross, reproach me, 
and convince me of my manifold wanta. 

" I want ' power from on high, ' I want penetrating, 
lasting ' unction of the Holy One,' I want my vessel (my 
capacious heart) full of oil, which makes the countenance 
of wise virgins cheerful. I want a lamp of heavenly 
illumination, and a fire of divine love burning day and 
night in my heart, as the t^j)ical lamps did in the temple, 
and the sacred fire on the altar. I want a full application 
of the blood which cleanseth from all sia, and a strong 
*aith in thy sanctifying Word — a faith by which thou 
mayest dwell in my heart, as the unwavering hope of 
glory, and the fixed object of my love. I want the eternal 
Oracle (thy still small voice), together with Urim and 
Thummim — ' the name which none knoweth but he that 
receiveth it.' In a word, Lord, I want a plenitude of 
thy Spirit, the full promise of the Father, and the rivers 
which flow from the inmost souls of the believers, who 
have gone on to the perfection of their dispensation. 

"I do now believe that thou canst and wilt thus 
* baptize me with the Holy Ghost and with fire ; ' help me 
against my unbelief ; confirm and increase my faith with 
regard to this important baptism. Lord, I have need to 
be thus baptized by thee, and I am straitened till this 
baptism is accomplished. By thy baptism of tears in the 



EXALTED PIETY. 175 

manger, of water in Jordan, of sweat in Gethsemane, of 
blood, of fire, and vapor of smoke, and naming wrath on 
Calvary, baptize, baptize my soul, and make full an end 
of the original sin ! Some of thy people look at death for 
full salvation from sin ; but at thy command, Lord, I look 
to thee. 

" Say to my soul, * I am thy salvation,' and let me feel 
with my heart, as well as see with my understanding, that 
thou canst save from sin to the uttermost all that come 
unto God through thee. I am tired of forms, professions, 
and orthodox notions, except as they are pipes or channels 
to convey life, light and love to my dead, dark and stony 
heart. Neither the plain letter of the Gospel, nor the 
sweet foretastes and transient illuminations of thy Spirit, 
can satisfy the large desires of my faith. 

" Give me thy abiding Spirit, that He may continually 
shed abroad thy love in my sou]. Come, O Lord, with 
that blessed Spirit ! Come thou and thy Father, in that 
holy Comforter ! Come to make thy abode wfth me, or I 
shall go meekly mourning to my grave ! Blessed mourning ! 
Lord increase it. I would rather wait years for thy 
fulness, than wantonly waste the fragments of thy spir- 
itual bounds, or feed with Laodicean contentment upon 
the tainted manna of my former experiences. Righteous 
Father, I hunger and thirst after thy righteousness ; send 
thy Holy Spirit of promise to fill me herewith, to sanctify 
me throughout, and to ' seal me completely to the day of 
eternal redemption ' and finished salvation. Not fofr^works 
of righteousness which I have done, but of mercy, ' for 
Christ's sake,' save thou me, by the complete washing of 
regeneration, and the full renewing of the Holy Ghost. 
And, in order to do this, pour out thy Spirit ; sh^d Him 



176 REMARKABLE NARRATIVES. 

abundantly on me, till the fountain of living waters 
abundantly springs up in my soul, and I can say, in the 
full sense of the words, that thou livest in me, that my life is 
hid with Christ in God, and that my spirit is returned to 
Him that gave it ; to thee, the first and the last, my 
Author and my end, my God and my all." 

Fletcher had prestige of birth, being a Swiss of good 
family. He was not without inherited wealth and ex- 
pectant of more ; his scholarship was considerable ; he 
lacked not ambition. He was going to join the army of 
Portugal, but a scalded foot prevented it. He was received 
into the best society in England, his adopted country, and 
he might have become a favorite. But he was, above all 
and better than all, acknowledged and admired as a" man 
of God " — " the saintly Fletcher." Never was this epithet 
more accurately applied, it may be said, even honored. 
" For seraphic piety, for sanctity that had no perceptible 
spot or flaw, he stood alone." Wesley says : "I was 
intimately acquainted with him more than thirty years. 
During a journey of many hundred miles I conversed with 
him morning, noon and night, without the least reserve, 
and in all that time I never heard him speak an improper 
word or saw him do an improper action. Many exemplary 
men have I known, holy in heart and life, within fourscore 
years, but one equal to him I have not known — one so 
inwardly and outwardly devoted to God. So unblamable 
a character in every respect I have not found either in 
Europe or America." Southey says : " Fletcher, in any 
communion, would have been a saint." Isaac Taylor 
says : " He was a saint, as unearthly a being as could 
tread the earth at all." Robert Hall says : " Fletcher is a 
seraph who burns with the ardor of divine love. Spurning 



EXALTED PILTY. 177 

the fetters of mortality, he almost habitually seems to have 
anticipated the rapture of the beatific vision." 

In 1 769, Fletcher, at the request of Lady Huntingdon, 
became president of her seminary for educating young 
men for the ministry, at Trevecca, in Wales. Benson 
describes Fletcher at Trevecca in the following glowing 
language : " The reader will pardon me if he thinks I 
exceed ; my heart kindles while I write. Here it was that 
I saw, shall I say, an angel in human flesh. I should not 
far exceed the truth if I said so. But here I saw a 
descendant of fallen Adam, so fully raised above the sins 
of the fall, that though by the body he was tied down to 
earth, yet was his whole conversation in heaven ; yet was 
his life from day to day hid with Christ in God. Prayer, 
praise, love and zeal, all ardent, elevated above what one 
would think attainable in this state of frailty, were the 
elements in which he continually lived. Language, arts, 
sciences, grammar, rhetoric, logic, even divinity itself, as 
it is called, were all laid aside when he appeared in the 
school-room anions the students. And thev seldom heark- 
ened long before they were all in tears, and every heart 
caught the fire from the flame that burned in his soul." 

He was eminent as a controversial writer for point, 
acuteness and logical skill. His " Checks to Antinomian- 
ism," says Dr. Stevens, " are read more to-day than they 
were during the excitement of the controversy. They 
control the opinions of the largest and most effective body 
of evangelical clergymen on the earth." On the 14th of 
August, 1785, he died in sure and certain hope of a 
glorious resurrection. 



12 



178 REMARKABLE NARRATIVES. 



The Moralist's Dream. 

Very many persons, more perhaps than we are aware of, 
are building their hopes of salvation upon their own good- 
ness. Like the young ruler who came to Jesus, they point 
to their correct outward lives, their amiable instincts, their 
obedience to the positive precepts of the moral law, the 
general good character which they maintain in the com- 
munity, and confidently ask, " What lack I yet ? " Very 
many persons go through life, enjoying the confidence and 
respect of their fellowmen, pointed out as models of com- 
mercial honor and good citizenship, and amiable and kindly 
deportment, and cherishing a good hope that these outside 
virtues and fair reputation and good moral character, are 
all that is needed to secure the approbation of God and a 
final entrance into heaven. In very many cases this delu- 
sion continues, and ends only with life. In others, in the 
grace and mercy of God, it is corrected, and the man 
taught by the Word, or Providence, or Spirit of God his 
true moral condition is led to abandon his self-righteous 
hopes, and seek for pardon and acceptance only through 
the merits and mediation of the Divine Redeemer. The 
methods in which this blessed change is accomplished, may 
differ widely in different cases. We desire to narrate a 
well-authenticated case, which came to our knowledge 
many years ago, in which the agency employed by God to 
lead a man who long had rested on the hope of the 
moralist, to seek for a better reliance, was that of a dream. 
The individual in question was a gentleman of good 
social position, and of highly respectable character. His 
home was in a beautiful town of New England, where he 



THE MORALIST'S DREAM. 179 

had lived for many years, surrounded by much of the 
luxury of life, and enjoying the general respect and confi- 
dence of his neighbors. He was a good specimen of what 
is called a man of unblemished morality. ~No stain ever 
rv-sted on his integrity as a merchant, no blemish sullied 
his character as a citizen. He was never known to 
owe any man a farthing. His pecuniary liabilities were 
always promptly and fully met, and though it was some- 
times said that Mr. was not very generous, everybody 

was ready to testify that he was a thoroughly just man. 
With him, strict justice was the cardinal virtne. And this 
was the trait on which, in his secret heart, he most prided 
himself. He was especially severe in his condemnation of 
those who were careless of their pecuniary obligations, and 
if he had been asked on what, more than anything else, he 
relied for his justification at last, he probably would have 
replied, " I have always been an honest man, and paid my 
debts." 

Thus the years passed, and Mr. was an old man. 

He still preserved his reputation for high integrity, and 
still prided himself upon his character for justice. No 
presentation of Christ as the righteousness of the sinner, 
no appeal to put his trust in the great Atonement, and to 
rely on the precious blood, could reach his heart, defended 
as it was by this firm and complacent sense of his own 
integrity, this assurance that he had paid all his honest 
debts. 

At last, in his old age, the grace of God brought him to 
a better mind. And this is substantially the account 
which he himself gave of the method of his change. 

One night when retiring at his customary hour, and in 
his usual health, he had the following dream : 

He dreamed that he had died, and his soul had left the 



180 REMARKABLE NARRATIVES. 

body ; and entirely self-conscious, he found himself in what 
seemed to be a spacious apartment, from which there was 
but one exit, and that by a large door. Upon the wall 
above it, he distinctly read in large characters this sen- 
tence : " You shall pass from this room directly into heaven, 
ivhenever you can show that you have paid all your debts" 

" Oh ! " said he, " then I shall go at once to heaven, for 
I am sure that nobody can say that I owe him a farthing." 

Just then he heard a confused noise outside the door, as 
if a number of persons were seeking admittance. Then it 
opened, and a pale, sickly-looking stranger approached him, 
ard said : 

" I am come to demand the payment of my debt." 

"I owe you nothing. I do not remember that I ever 
saw you in all my life." 

" Do you not remember," said the pale stranger, " about 
twenty years ago, when on a hot and dusty summer-day, as 
you were riding in your carriage in Boston, that you over- 
took a stranger, weary, sick, and poor ? Do you remember 
the imploring look which he cast upon you, asking that you 
would give him a ride in your carriage, and how, regardless 
of his appeal, you dashed along, and left him almost 
fainting by the wayside 1 I was that sick stranger, on my 
way to the hospital. You owed me a ride. Not by the 
rules of earthly law, but by that code which is the law of 
Christ's kingdom. You owed me a ride, and that debt 
stands charged against you on God's book, with interest 
through all those twenty years." 

New thoughts began to work in the man's mind ; but ere 
he could speak another person advanced and accosted him : 
" I have come for the payment of my debt." 

He recognized in the speaker a former poor neighbor, 
and replied : " Surely I owe you nothing ! " 



THE MORALIST'S DREAM. 181 

" Did ycm not once buy of me a cow ? " 

" Yes, I remember that, though it's a long time ago. 
But I paid you for her." 

" Yes," replied the man ; " but do you not remember 
the circumstances — the hard winter, my sick family, my 
failure to get work, so that to save myself and household 
from starvation, I was forced to sell that cow at half her 
real value. And you, my rich and powerful neighbor, took 
advantage of my situation, and I was forced to take your 
offer, though you knew as well as I that it was no fair 
price. You owe me as much more, by God's law, by 
heaven's jurisprudence ; and it's been on interest all these 
years." 

Mr. sank back conscience-stricken and condemned. 

He saw through the half-opened door a vast crowd of per- 
sons struggling for admission, each bringing a claim 
against him, which he felt was just. Overwhelmed with 
confusion and remorse, with his sins staring him full in the 
face, and in despair of any way of meeting these accumu- 
lated obligations, he exclaimed at last : 

" O God of mercy, show me how I can be released from 
these claims ; show me how I can be saved from these 
debts which I can never pay." 

Just then, the writing faded from the wall, and in its 
place he saw these words : 

" The blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all 
sin." 

" Ah ! " cried he, " that is what I need ; " and with 
these words, he awoke ; awoke to renounce his own right- 
eousness, and to cast himself with penitence and faith upon 
the great Atonement, and to find peace and joy in believing 
in Jesus. — E. P. Rogers, D.D. 



182 REMARKABLE NARRATIVES. 



The Devil in Dry Places. 

Christmas Evans, a celebrated Welsh preacher, in his own 
graphic way describes the influence of divine truth in the 
heart as the means of resisting temptation : 

" I see the unclean spirit rising like a winged dragon, 
circling in the air, and seeking for a resting-place. 
Casting his fiery glances towards a certain neighbor- 
hood, he spies a young man in the bloom of life, and 
rejoicing in his strength, seated on the front of his cart 
going for lime. ' There he is,' said the old dragon. * His 
veins are full of blood and his bones of marrow. I will 
throw into his bosom sparks from hell ; I will set all his 
passions on fire ; I will lead him from bad to worse until he 
shall perpetrate every sin. I will make him a murderer, 
and his soul shall sink, never again to rise, in the lake of 
fire.' By this time I see him descend with a fell swoop 
toward the earth ; but nearing the youth the dragon heard 
him sing : 

" ' Guide me, O Thou great Jehovah ! 
Pilgrim through this barren land : 
I am weak, but Thou art mighty, 
Hold me with Thy powerful hand. 
Strong Deliverer, 
Be Thou still my strength and shield.' 

" ' A dry, dry place, this,' says the dragon, and away he 
goes. 

" But I see him again hovering in the air, and casting 
about for a suitable resting-place. 

" Beneath his eye there is a flowery meadow watered by 



THE DEVIL IN DRY PLACES. 183 

a crystal steam, and he descries among the kine a maiden 
about eighteen years of age picking up here and there a 
beautiful flower. ' There she is/ says Apollyon, intent 
upon her soul. ' I will poison her thoughts ; she shall 
stray from the paths of virtue ; she shall think evil 
thoughts, and become impure ; she shall become a lost 
creature in the great city, and at last I will cast her down 
from the precipice into everlasting burnings/ And again he 
took his downward flight ; but he no sooner came near the 
maiden than he heard her sing the following words with a 
voice that might have melted the rocks : 

" ' Other refuge have I none, 

Hangs my helpless soul on Thee : 
Leave, ah ! leave me not alone, 
Still support and comfort me/ 

" 'This place is too dry for me,' says the dragon, and off 
he flies. Now he ascends from the meadow like some great 
balloon, but very much enraged and breathing forth 
'smoke and fire,' and threatening ruin and damnation to 
all created things. 

'"I will have a place to dwell in,' he says, ' in spite of 
decree, covenant or grace.' As he was thus speaking he 
beheld a woman ' stricken in years/ busy with her spinning- 
wheel at her cottage door. 'Ah ! I see/ says the dragon • 
' she is ripe for destruction ; she shall know the bitterness 
of the wail which ascends from the burning marl of hell ! ■ 
He forthwith alights on the roof of the cot, where he hears 
the old woman repeat with trembling voice, but with 
heavenly feeling, the words : ' For the mountains shall 
depart, and the hills be removed, but my kindness shall not 



184 REMARKABLE NARRATIVES. 

depart from thee.' ' This place is too dry for me/ says the 
dragon, and away he goes again. 

" ' In yonder cottage lies old William, slowly wasting 
away. He has borne the heat and the burden, and 
altogether has had a hard life of it. He has very little 
reason to be thankful for the mercies he has received, and 
has not found serving God a profitable business. I know 

I can get him to " curse God and die." ' Thus musing, 
away he flew to the sick man's bedside ; but as he listened 
he heard the words : ' Though I walk through the valley 
of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for thou art 
with me ; thy rod and thy staff, they comfort me.' 
Mortified and enraged, the dragon took his flight, saying, 

I I will return to the place from whence I came.' ' 

" Thy word have I hid in my heart, that I might not sin 
against thee" — Psa. cxix. 11. 



Archibald Boyle. 

Nearly a century ago there was in Glasgow, Scotland, a 
club of gentlemen of the first rank in that city. They 
met professedly for card-playing, but the members were 
distinguished by such fearless excess of profligacy as to 
obtain for it the name of " The Hell Club" They gloried 
in the name they had acquired for themselves, and nothing 
that could merit it was left untried. 

Besides their nightly or weekly meetings, they held a 
grand annual festival, at which each member endeavored 
to " outdo all his former outdoings " in drunkenness, 
blasphemy and licentiousness. Of all who shone on these 



ARCHIBALD BOYLE. 18 . 

occasions, none shone half so brilliantly as Archibald 
Boyle. But, alas ! the light that dazzled him was not 
"light from heaven," but from that dread abode which 
gave name to the vile association which was to prove his 
ruin — ruin for time and eternity ! 

x\rchibald Boyle had been at one time a youth of the 
richest promise, being possessed of dazzling talents and 
fascinating manners. No acquirement was too high for his 
ability ; but, unfortunately, there was none too low for hit 
ambition ! " Educated by a fond and foolishly indulgent 
mother, he early met in society with members of " The 
Hell Club." His elegance, wit, gaiety, and versatility oi 
talent, united to the gifts of fortune, made him a most 
desirable victim for them ; and a victim and a slave, 
glorying in his bondage, he quickly became. Long ere he 
was five and twenty, he was one of the most accomplished 
" blackguards " it could number on its list. To him what 
were heaven, hell, or eternity ? Words, mere words that 
served no purpose, but to point his blasphemous wit, or 
nerve his execrations ! To him, what glory was there 
equal to that of hearing himself pronounced "the very life 
of the Club " ? Alas ! there was none, for as soon as man 
forgets God, who alone can keep him, his understanding 
becomes darkened, and he glories in that which is his 
shame. 

Yet, while all within that heart was festering in cor- 
ruption, he retained all his remarkable beauty of face and 
person, all his external elegance of manner, and continued 
an acknowledged favorite in the fairest female society of 
the day. 

One night, on retiring to sleep, after returning from one 
of the annual meetings of the club, Boyle dreamt that he 



186 REMARKABLE NARRATIVES. 

was still riding, as usual, upon his famous black horse 
towards his own house — then a country seat embowered by- 
ancient trees, and situated upon a hill now built over by 
the most fashionable part of Glasgow — and that he was 
suddenly accosted by someone, whose personal appearance 
he could not in the gloom of night distinctly discern, but 
who, seizing the reins, said, in a voice apparently accus- 
tomed to command, " You must go with me ! B " And 
who are you ? " exclaimed Boyle, with a volley of blasphe- 
mous execrations, while he struggled to disengage his reins 
from the intruder's grasp. " That you will see by and by," 
replied the same voice in a cold, sneering tone, that 
thrilled through his very heart. Boyle plunged his spurs 
into the panting sides of the steed. The noble animal 
reared, and then suddenly darted forward with a speed 
that nearly deprived his rider of breath ; but in vain, in 
vain ! — fleeter than the wind he flew — the mysterious, 
half -seen guide still before him ! Agonized by he knew 
not what, of indescribable horror and awe, Boyle again 
furiously spurred the gallant horse. It fiercely reared and 
plunged ; he lost his seat, and expected at the moment to 
be dashed to the earth. But not so, for he continued to 
fall, fall, fall, it appeared to himself with an ever- 
increasing velocity. At length this terrific rapidity of 
motion abated, and, to his amazement and horror, he 
perceived that this mysterious attendant was close by his 
side. " Where," he exclaimed in frantic energy of despair, 
" where are you taking me ? Where am I — where am 
I going f " "To hell ! " replied the same iron voice ; and 
from the depths below the sound so familiar to his lips was 
suddenly re-echoed. 

"To hell ! " Onward, onward thev hurried in dark- 



ARCHIBALD BOYLE. 187 

ness, rendered more horrible still by the conscious presence 
of his spectral conductor. At length a glimmering light 
appeared in the distance, and soon increased to a blaze ; 
but, as they approached it, in addition to the hideously 
discordant groans and yells of agony and despair, his ears 
were assailed with what seemed to be the echoes of frantic 
revelry. They soon reached an arched entrance, of such 
stupendous magnificence that all the grandeur of this 
world seemed in comparison but as the frail and dingy 
labors of the poor mole. Within it, what a scene ! — too 
awful to be described. Multitudes, gnashing their teeth 
in the hopelessness of mad despair, cursed the day that 
gave them birth, while memory recalling opportunities lost 
and mercies despised, presented to their fevered mental 
vision the scenes of their past lives. Their fancy still 
pictured to them the young and lovely moving up and 
down in the giddy mazes of the midnight dance ; the 
bounding steed bearing his senseless rider through the 
excitements of the goaded race ; the intemperate still 
drawling over the midnight bowl the wanton song or 
maudlin blasphemy. There the slave of Mammon be- 
moaned his folly in bartering his soul for useless gold ; 
while the gambler bewailed, alas ! too late, the madness of 
his choice. 

Boyle at length perceived that he was surrounded by 
those whom he had known on the earth, but were some- 
time dead, each one of them betraying his agony at the 
bitter recollections of the vain pursuits that had engrossed 
his time here — time lentr to prepare for a far different 
scene. 

Suddenly observing that his unearthly conductor had 
disappeared, he felt so relieved by his absence that he 



188 REMARKABLE NARRATIVES. 

ventured to address his former friend, Mrs. D , whom 

he saw sitting with her eyes fixed in intense earnestness, 
as she was wont on earth, apparently absorbed in her 

favorite game of Loo. " Ha, Mrs. D , delighted to see 

you. D'ye know, a fellow told me to-night he was bring- 
ing me to hell ! Ha, ha ! If this be hell/' said he, 
scoffingly, "what a devilish pleasant place it must be! 

Ha, ha ! Come, now, my good Mrs. D , for ' auld 

lang syne,' do just stop for a moment, rest, and" — 'show 
me through the pleasures of hell ! ' he was going with 
reckless profanity to add ; but with a shriek that seemed 
to cleave through his very soul, she exclaimed, " Rest ! 
There is no rest in hell ! " and from the interminable 
vaults, voices, as loud as thunder, repeated the awful, the 
heart-withering sound, " There is no rest in hell ! " 

She hastily unclasped the vest of her gorgeous robe, and 
displayed to the scared and shuddering eye a coil of fiery, 
living snakes — "the worm that never dies," the worm of 
accusing conscience, remorse, despair — writhing, darting, 
stinging, in her bosom. Others followed her example ; and 
in every bosom there, was a self-inflicted punishment. In 
some he saw bare and throbbing hearts, on which distilled 
slowly drops, as it were, of fiery molten metal, under 
which consuming, yet ever unconsumed, they writhed 
and palpitated in the impotence of helpless, hopeless 
agony. And many a scalding tear was dropped of hope- 
less anguish, wrung by selfish, heartless villany, from the 
eye of injured innocence on earth. 

In every bosom he saw that which we have no language 
to describe — no idea horrid enough even to conceive ; for 
in all he saw the full-grown fruit of the evil passions, 
voluntarily nourished in the human soul during its mortal 



ARCHIBALD BOYLE. 189 

pilgrimage here ; and in all he saw them lashed and 
maddened by the serpent-armed hand 

" Of Despair ; 
. . . For hell were not hell 
If Hope had ever entered there ! " 

And they laughed, for they had laughed on earth at all 
there is of good and holy. And they sang — profane and 
blasphemous songs sang they ; for they had often done so 
on earth, at the very hour God claims as His own, Itfie still 
and midnight hour. And he who in his vision walked 
among them in a mortal frame of flesh and blood, felt how 
inexpressibly more horrible such sounds could be than ever 
was the wildest shriek of agony on earth. 

" These are the pleasures of hell ! " again assailed his 
ear, in the same terrific and interminable roll of unearthly 
sound. He rushed away ; but as he fled, he saw those 
whom he knew must have been dead for thousands of 
years still absorbed in the recollections of their sinful 
pleasures on earth, and toiling on through their eternity of 
woe. The vivid reminiscences of their godlessness on 
earth inflicted on them the bitterest pangs in their doom 
in hell ! 

He saw Maxwell, the former companion of his own 
boyhood profligacy, borne along in incessant movement, 
mocked by the creations of his frenzied mind, as if intent 
on pursuing the headlong chase. " Stop, Harry, stop ! 
Speak to me. Oh, rest one moment. 1 ' Scarce had the 
words been breathed from his faltering lips, when again 
his terror-stricken ear was stunned with the same \rild 
yell of agony, re-echoed by ten thousand voices, " There 
is no rest in hell ! " 



190 REMARKABLE NARRATIVES. 

Boyle tried to shut his eyes. He found he could not. 
He threw himself down, but the pavement of hell, as with 
a living and instinctive movement, rejected him from its 
surface ; and, forced upon his feet, he found himself com- 
pelled to gaze with still increasing intensity of horror at 
the ever-changing, yet ever- steady torrent of eternal tor- 
ment. And this was hell ! — the scoffer's jest, the by-word 
of the profligate. 

All at once he perceived that his unearthly conductor 
was once more by his side. " Take me," shrieked Boyle, 
" take me from this place. By the living God, whose name 
I have so often outraged, I adjure thee, take me from this 
place ! " 

" Canst thou still name His name ? " said the fiend with 
a hideous sneer ; " go, then ; but in a year and a day we 
meet to part no more." 

Boyle awoke, and he felt as if the last words of the 
fiend were traced in letters of living fire upon his heart 
and brain. Unable from actual bodilv ailment to leave 
his bed for several days, the horrid vision had full time to 
take effect upon his mind ; and many were the pangs of 
tardy remorse and ill-defined terror that beset his vice- 
stained soul, as he lay in darkness and seclusion, to him so 
very unusual. 

He resolved, utterly and forever, to forsake " the Club." 
Above all, he determined that nothing on earth should 
tempt him to join the next annual festival. 

The companions of his licentiousness soon flocked around 
him ; and finding that his deep dejection of mind did not 
disappear with his bodily ailment, and that it arose from 
some cause which disinclined him from seeking or enjoying 
their accustomed orgies, they became alarmed with the 



ARCHIBALD BOYLE. 191 

idea of losing " the Hfe of the Club," and they bound them- 
selves by an oath never to desist till they had discovered 
what was the matter with him, and had cured him of 
playing the Methodist ; for their alarm as to losing " the 
life of the Club " had been wrought up to the highest 
pitch, by one of their number declaring that, on unex- 
pectedly entering Boyle's room, he detected him in the act 
of hastily hiding a book, which he actually believed was 
the Bible. 

Alas ! alas ! had poor Boyle possessed sufficient true 
moral courage and dignity of character not to have 
hidden the Bible, how different might have been his 
future ! but, like many a hopeful youth, he was ashamed to 
avow his convictions and to take his stand for God, and 
his ruin was the result. 

After a time, one of his compeers, more deeply cunning 
than the rest, bethought him of assuming the air of 
deepest disgust with the world, the Club, and the mode 
of life they had been pursuing. He affected to seek 
Boyle's company in a mood of congenial melancholy, and 
to sympathize in all his feelings. Thus he succeeded in 
betraying him into a misplaced confidence as to his dream, 
and the effect it had upon his mind. The result may be 
readily guessed. His confidence was betrayed — his feel- 
ings of repentance ridiculed ; and it will be easily believed 
that he who " hid the Bible," had not nerve to stand the 
ribald jest of his profligate companions. 

We cannot trace the progress, and would not if we 
could. Suffice it to say that virtuous resolutions were 
broken — prayers once offered voluntarily were called 
back by sin from the throne of heaven — all were recalled ; 
yet not lost without such a deep struggle between the 



192 REMARKABLE NARRATIVES. 

convictions of conscience and the spirit of evil, as wrung 
the color from his young cheek, and made him, ere the 
year was done, a haggard and grey-haired man. 

From the next annual meeting he shrunk with an in- 
stinctive horror, and made up his mind utterly to avoid 
it. Well aware of this resolve, his tempters determined he 
should have no choice. How potent, how active is the 
spirit of evil ! How feeble is unassisted, Christless man ! 
Boyle found himself, he could not tell how, seated at that 
table on that very day, where he had sworn to himself a 
thousand and a thousand times nothing on earth could 
make him sit. 

His ears tingled and his eyes swam as he listened to the 
opening sentence of the president's address : " Gentlemen, 
this is leap year ; therefore it is a year and a day since 
our last annual meeeing." 

Every nerve of Boyle's body twinged in agony at the 
ominous, the well-remembered words. His first impulse 
was to rise and fly ; but then, the sneers ! the sneers ! 

How many in this world, as well as poor Boyle, have sold 
their souls to the dread of a sneer, and dared the wrath of 
an almighty and eternal God, rather than encounter the 
sarcastic curl of a fellow-creature's lip. 

He was more than ever plied with wine, applause, and 
every other species of excitement, but in vain. His mirth, 
his wit, were like the lurid flashes from the bosom of a 
brooding thunder-cloud, that pass and leave it all darker 
than before ; and his laugh sounded fiendish even to the 
evil ears that heard it. 

The night was gloomy, with frequent and fitful gusts of 
chill and howling wind, as Boyle, with fevered nerves and 
reeling brain, mounted his horse to return home. 



SANCTIFIED NOBILITY. K>8 

The following morning the well-known black steed was 
found, with saddle and bridle on, quietly grazing on the 
roadside, about half-way to Boyle's country house, and a 
few yards from it lay the stiffened corpse of its master. 

Reader, although this is but a dream, it is, nevertheless, 
a well-authenticated fact ; and God, who has the power of 
communicating with the minds of His creatures, did doubt- 
less speak by this dream to poor Archibald Boyle, and 
through the same dream He now speaks to you. 

Reader, the dream is horrible, truly horrible, yet not 
half so horrible as the reality. Ah, no ; no dream can 
picture the full, long misery of " the worm that dieth 
not," " the fire that is never quenched," the woe that never 
ends. 

That which is bottomless can never be fathomed ; that 
which is infinite can never be measured. And the most 
wonderful, nay, the most dreadful thought is, that there is 
in our nature a capacity to endure it. 



Sanctified Nobility. 

Lady Maxwell, who was a co-temporary of Rev. John 
Wesley, was indeed " a burning and a shining light." She 
had a very definite and blessed experience from the very 
commencement of her religious life. Having parsed from 
death unto life, she began to hunger and thirst after full 
salvation, a deliverance from all inward corruption, and to 
be filled with all the fulness of God. Soon after the com- 
mencement of 1787, she entered into the experience of this, 



13 



194 RExMARKABLE NARRATIVES. 

long-coveted blessing, and bore consistent testimony tfaat 
the bitter root of sin was destroyed. 

" Lady Maxwell's experience from this time — to use her 
own expression — evidently ran in a deeper channel. She 
had for years walked with God ; but now her walk became 
more intimate and familiar. She had long felt ' the powers 
of the world to come.' After this she frequently felt as if 
on the borders of immortality, holding converse with its 
heavenly inhabitants. Her faith, in a measure, drew aside 
the veil of sensible things, and enabled her to contemplate 
with a steady eye invisible and eternal realities. i While 
an indescribable emptiness appeared impressed on all terres- 
trial objects/ her affectionate powers were concentrated and 
fixed on Jehovah. To promote the glory of God, to extol 
the riches of His grace, to exalt the Saviour, to recommend 
redeeming love, to seek the salvation of souls, was especially 
from this period, her only and delightful employment. 
This was the element in which she lived, and moved, and 
breathed. Though still conscious of her own nothingness 
and weakness — though still the subject of temptation — 
called to wrestle with principalities and powers, and the 
rulers of the darkness of this world — yet her spiritual 
enjoyments became deeper, solid, constant ; and her frames 
less subject to fluctuation." 

In a letter to Miss Ritchie, one of her devoted corre- 
spondents, she says : " Since January last, the Lord has 
been sensibly increasing my little stock ; not only making 
wonderful discoveries of the glory of God the Father, God 
the Son, and God the Holy Ghost, as distinct persons, yet 
the same in substance — equal in power and glory ; but also 
allowing me such nearness to, and deep communion with 
the sacred Three, as was at times almost too much for the 



SANCTIFIED NOBILITY. 195 

clay tenement, and seemed in a great measure to break off 
my connection with mortality. Oh, the heavenly, the inex- 
pressibly delightful interviews with the Lord Jesus, with 
which I have often been lately indulged ! I cannot convey 
any adequate idea of them ; perhaps your own experience 
will better inform you. At times the solemn grandeur of 
heavenly majesty was sweetly tempered and softened by 
redeeming love. At other seasons, I have been called to 
stand in the presence of the most high God himself ; when 
sacred awe fiTed my soul, and all around seemed filled with 
the presence of Jehovah. I felt as if I stood on holy 
ground. At other times, Father, Son and Holy Ghost 
have so surrounded me that I proved, in the full extent of 
the words, the i overwhelming power of saving grace. 7 " In 
a letter to the Rev. Alexander Mather, she says : "I have 
to fight every inch of my ground, not only without, but 
sometimes within, when the powers of darkness are per- 
mitted, for wise ends, to molest me. Then I feel driven to 
a corner ; all human help fails, and I prove, in a peculiar 
manner, that I stand by faith ; and even in that way, only 
by the mighty exertions of divine power in my behalf. 
For the time, faith seems stripped of all its fruits, and but 
for the direct act, by which, in spite of men and devils, I 
keep my hold of Christ, I should utterly fail. But, in 
general, these very trying seasons of inward distress are 
short. God soon rebukes the adversary, and brings me 
again into a wealthy place, and I dwell within the veil." 
Again she writes : " My God is to me as a place of broad 
rivers, wide and deep. I rest in Him. Sinking into Him, 
I lose myself ; and prove a life of fellowship with Deity, 
so divinely sweet that I would not relinquish it for a 



196 REMARKABLE NARRATIVES 

thousand worlds. It is, indeed, a narrow path ; but love 
levels every mountain — makes all easy." 

On the death of Mr. Wesley, she wrote to a friend : " It 
is impossible for me to tell you how good God has been to 
me on this mournful occasion. A springtide of pure, per- 
fect love has filled my soul. I have felt such a sinking 
into Jehovah, so lost in His immensity, as I cannot 
express \ no rapturous joy, but a full sea of holy humble 
love. My heart was melted into deep gratitude : its ten- 
derest feelings were called forth ; and every degree of that 
anxiety about future events — which brings weakness into 
the soul — was entirely excluded. What can I render to 
the Lord for this exuberance of H is goodness, so well suited 
to my present feelings, while mourning the loss of a valu- 
able friend — a most useful minister of Christ. Truly I am 
made to rise above the grave of my departed friend. I trace 
him worshipping before the throne, and by faith hold 
fellowship with his spirit." January 7, 1792, she wrote in 
her diary : " Early on Sunday morning, the first day of the 
year, I had a most wonderful display of the love and power 
of the triune God. This continued for many hours in its- 
full strength, and, in a degree, for several days. It was a 
most memorable season. I proved the overwhelming 
power of saving grace. I would not here attempt to give 
the great outlines, for no human pen can describe all 
I felt and saw. Early on Sunday morning, in secret 
prayer, God the Father and Son drew very nigh. A sense 
of the divine presence so penetrated my inmost soul that it 
arrested the whole powers of my mind, in deep and solemn 
attention. A spirit of supplication was then poured upon 
me for myself and others, while I felt so surrounded with 
Deity, so let into Jehovah, as no words can express, it 



SANCTIFIED NOBILITY. 197 

seemed as if I might ask what I would, both for myself 
and others, with confidence that it should be done for me. 
This glorious and solemn interview continued till half-past 
ten. I then went to chape], when it was greatly increased. 
The eternal world felt very nigh ; I seemed by faith to 
have come to Mount Zion, the heavenly Jerusalem. My 
spirit seemed mingling with its blessed inhabitants, while 
the sacred Three appeared, as it were, encamping around 
me. It was glory past all expression! I seemed to sink 
deeper into the boundless ocean of pure love. This did not 
appear to me a solitary blessing, but in a measure diffused 
through the whole congregation assembled for the purpose 
of showing forth the dying love of Jesus. I have learned 
that many were peculiarly blessed at that time." 

Thus this eminent saint continued to the very last to 
grow in grace, and to become more and more assimilated to 
the divine image. It is no wonder, then, that her death 
was triumphant. An eye-witness says : " She expired 
without a sigh, struggle, or groan ; and this was literally 
in answer to prayer. Oh, such a death-bed ! It appeared 
like the verge of heaven — like waiting in the sanctuary 
surrounded by angels and archangels — and above all, a 
place which the presence of God rendered sacred." Thus 
died Lady Maxwell, July 2, 1810. The society to which 
she belonged lost its oldest member, the world one of its 
best inhabitants, and the Church universal one of its 
brightest ornaments. 

The Rev. W. Atherton, in his " Sketch of the Life and 
Character of Lady Maxwell," says: " Her dress, which 
was as much dictated by conscience as founded on taste, 
was very plain, being without ornament, or anything 
that would serve only for show. Her talent for con versa- 



198 REMARKABLE NARRATIVES. 

tion was very remarkable, calculated at once to profit and 
delight. It might be said of her that she spoke well on 
every subject. She was truly humble ; indeed to question 
this were to doubt her Christianity. She appears ever to 
have had such full and clear views of the divine perfections 
and of her own want of conformity to the divine image ; 
such extended discoveries of her own religious privileges, 
and of her disproportionate improvement ; such a percep- 
tion of the attainments of others, placed in circumstances 
less favorable to advance in Christian holiness than her 
own, as overwhelmed her with a sense of her own unwor- 
thiness, and sunk her as into nothing before God. Few per- 
sons more fully estimated the full value of time, or more 
sedulously husbanded it than she did ; having in this, as in 
some other things, taken the father of Methodism for her 
model. 

" With her the characters of others were as sacred as 
their property. Speaking evil of the absent was not 
known in her presence, and even the attempt was seldom 
made. 

"There was no trait in Lady Maxwell's character more 
prominent and fair than her benevolence. Her ardent 
desire for getting good was not more intense than her wish 
to be useful to her fellow-creatures. Perhaps very few 
examples have occurred of means so comparatively limited 
being husbanded so well, as to produce so much benefit to 
mankind. She saved all that she could for the sole purpose 
of giving, and by this her funds were continually kept low. 
She was, as has been noticed, singularly plain in her dress, 
genteelly frugal in her household ; and thus, by avoiding 
every useless expense, she acquired the power of conferring 
more in charity than many possess with ten times hef 



SANCTIFIED NOBILITY. 199 

income. All that was in her power to do, she did to the 
very utmost. There was scarcely a humane institution, or 
a private or public charity, whether for the repose of age, 
or instruction of youth, the relief of indigence, or the 
help of sickness ; for the reformation of morals, or the 
spread and support of religion, from which she did not 
receive applications, and to which she did not contribute. 
She erected and supported a school, in which, at the time 
of her death, about eight hundred children received a good 
education, and each a copy of the Scriptures on leaving 
school. And such were the encouraging effects produced 
by this school as induced her ladyship, by will, to provide 
for its continuance to the end of time. As she was pre- 
pared for every good work, the subject of her charities is 
an almost endless one. If the silent dead could arise, and 
the active living speak, if the sick she relieved, and the 
orphans she protected, if the friends she assisted, and the 
honest tradesmen whom she aided, if the obscure by her 
brought into notice, and the youth she instructed, if these 
— all these, should arise to bless her memory, what a 
mighty army of ready witnesses would attest the heaven- 
inspired benevolence of Lady Maxwell ! But she not only 
employed her money, but her tongue, which was persuasive ; 
her pen, which was urgent, and her influence, which was 
mild, but powerful, among her friends, to obtain their 
assistance. And it has been said that there was no sum 
which she gave, however small, no institution which she 
patronized, nor an individual who became the object of her 
charity, but what she followed with particular, earnest 
prayer to God, that what she had done might receive His 
blessing." 



200 REMARKABLE NARRATIVES. 



The Preacher and His Work. 

{This treatise by Prediger of St. Petersburg, though very brief, is the 
result of many years' reading. It lays no claim to originality; the 
thoughts it contains are gathered from or suggested by others. May 
He, whose servants it seeks to help, but without whose blessing it will 
be in vain, graciously use it ! ] 

THE MINISTER. 

A minister is set apart to glorify God and help men. 

A true minister dares not be other than a minister. 

Few men are so closely watched as ministers, and there 
are none whose inconsistencies do so much harm. 

Ministers are put in charge of souls, and will have to 
give account of them. 

No man is fit to be a minister who would not joyfully 
live and die in the lowest sphere so long as he can serve his 
Lord. 

No one can so easily do harm as a minister. 

If you are seeking to be admired, it will at last be better 
for you had you been a ploughman than a pastor. 

A trifling and inconsistent minister is a laughing-stock 
to bad men, and a sorrow to good ones. 

RESPONSIBILITY. 

" If thou speakest not to warn the wicked from his 
wicked way, to save his life, the same wicked man shall die 
in his iniquity ; but his blood will I require at thine hand." 

As a minister, when I think who I am, and who sent 
me, and how awful the account I must soon render, I 
tremble. 

Our opportunities of doing liarm are immense. My 



THE PREACHER AND HIS WORK. 201 

brother, a million years hence your influence will tell on 
souls ! Take care lest you lead men to ruin. 

If there be one sight in the universe calculated to inspire 
terror and dismay, it is that of a faithless minister about 
to be consigned to his doom. 

PRIVATE PRAYER. 

Public teaching is useless without private prayer. 

A minister is in duty bound to bear his people daily to 
the throne of grace. 

If you wish to preach well you must pray much. 

Generalities are the death of prayer. 

Plead with God before you plead for God. 

Better neglect your body than your soul, your meals 
than your prayers. 

He that lives most in prayer grows most in grace. 

Let prayer ascend when you wish blessing to descend. 

Neglect of prayer arises from want of faith ; he w r ho 
believes will pray. 

A little prayer does more than a great deal of study. 

THE SPHERE. 

You turn the helm of your life when you choose the 
sphere of your work. 

Go where you can do most for men, not where you can 
get most from men. 

Be more concerned about your ability than about your 
opportunity, and about your walk with God than either. 

Your sphere is where you are most needed. 

He who called you to the ministry will give you a sphere 
of service. 

There is no place without its difficulties ; by removing 



202 REMARKABLE NARRATIVES. 

you may change them, it may be you will increase them ; 
but you cannot escape them. 

Those who push themselves into a sphere they are not 
fitted for in this life will regret it in the next. 

Christ knows best where you can serve His people ; trust 
Him, and He will 'place you there. 

THE PULPIT. 

The moments you spend in the pulpit will tell on the 
ages you must spend in eternity. 

The piety of the pulpit decides the piety of the pew. 

Never go into the pulpit without Christ. 

In the pulpit, self and the concerns of time must be for- 
gotten. 

There is no place where Christ is more ready to reveal 
himself to His servants than in the pulpit. 

How easy it is to dishonor God in the pulpit ! 

Thousands of souls have been lost through the mistakes 
of the pulpit. 

Every moment spent in the pulpit is privileged time. 

PUBLIC PRAYER. 

Remember that you are in the presence of God, and that 
you address him. In ever pray to be admired of men. 

Let the sermon be omitted rather than the prayers be 
slurred. 

The prayers should make the people feel the reality of 
prayer. 

The prayers prepare the ground, the sermon sows the 
seed. 

The manner in praying does more than the matter in 
preaching. 



THE PREACHER AND HIS WORK. 203 

THE VOICE. 

A gentle voice is of untold value. All can attain it. 

Feigned voices are the great causes of relaxed throats. 

He who seeks, by a feigned voice, to make men wonder, 
makes them smile. 

Speak oftener, and your voice will not fail so often. 

The voice depends on the heart. 

If we think how we are saying a thing, our hearers will 
see it. ?.nd despise us for it. 

A »;\an cannot walk well when he thinks how he is 
walking, nor speak well when he thinks how he is speak- 
ing. 

A man's own heart is influenced by the tone of his voice y 
and the tone of his voice is affected by the state of his heart. 

PREACHING. 

You must live with God if you would preach for God. 

Manner tells quite as much as matter. 

Preach as you will wish you had preached when you 
stand before God. 

Ask often, " What does Christ think of my preach- 
ing ? " 

One earnest man does more than ten eloquent ones. 

Live well, and you will not preach badly. 

PREPARATION. 

Without God's blessing you can never prepare a sermon 
that you will not regret in eternity. 

The state of the heart decides the fate of the sermon. 

Never begin to prepare till you have clearly decided 
whether you want to gain men's praise or save men's 
§ouls, 



804 REMARKABLE NARRATIVES. 

Prepare your heart, then jour sermon. 

Prepare your sermon with the judgment-seat in view. 

In your preparation, remember that it may be the last 
sermon some who listen to you will ever hear. 

When preparing your sermon, forget yourself. 

If you desire to make a useless sermon, make a beautiful 
one. 

THE SERMON. 

Heart-sermons reach hearts. 

One weak point will injure ten strong ones. 

The Bible reiterates the same things again and again. 

Great sermons are given, not made. 

Harshness will produce resentment, gentleness con- 
trition. 

The strongest part of all great sermons is the close. 

More depends on the last two minutes than on the first 
ten. 

The aim of our sermons should be to reform the heart 
rather than to inform the mind. 

Every sermon may be your last. 

No sermon is a success which does not touch the heart 
and move the will. 

Make men remember the text. 

TEXTS AND DIVISIONS. 

Choose your texts for usefulness. 

Reject every division which might strike, but would not 

help. 

It is God's Word, not our word, that convicts and 
ronverts. 

Some can only be won to God by love, some can only be 



THE PREACHER AND HIS WORK. 205 

driven from sin by fear ; use pleading and threatening, as 
the Scriptures do. 

Value truth more than taste, souls more than symmetry. 

Let divisions always be : 1. Useful. 2. Simple. 3. 
Concise. 

STYLE. 

Simple language alone reaches the heart 

Vanity will make a man speak grandly, piety plainly. 

Striking and special are synonyms, when used respect- 
ing sermons. 

Don't whip with a switch that has the leaves on. 

You will not move a man if you do not make him under- 
stand you. 

The great Teacher never used a big word. 

DELIVERY. 

To keep attention, mix questions with statements. 

Think of your hearers' needs, and it will help you ; of 

their criticism, and it will hinder you. 

In large assemblies speak more slowly than in smaller 
ones. 

Make each one feel that you are speaking to him. 

Your hearers think about what you think about. 

Address the lowest, and you will reach the highest. 

Make men listen, and do not let them misunderstand. 

For whom do you preach, for Christ, or for yourself? 

THE CONGREGATION. 

Think more of the people than of the preacher. 
Nearly three-fourths of every audience do not understand 
the great truths of salvation . 



206 REMARKABLE NARRATIVES. 

Get a great heart if you would like a large congregation. 
Twenty are hungry of heart to one hungry of head. 
It is easy to manage a congregation when they are kept 
near to Christ. 

Forsake God, and your congregation will forsake you. 

VISITING. 

" Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of 
these my brethren, ye have done it unto Me J' 

It is not the time of sickness so much as the time of 
convalescence that decides the future life. Remember 
this, and seize opportunities. 

Let each one feel that you are his personal friend. 

Get others to talk. What a man says to you has more 
influence upon him than all you can say to him. 

"If a man have a hundred sheep, and one of them be 
gone astray, doth he not leave the ninety and nine, and 
goeth into the mountains, and seeketh that which is gone 
astray ? " 

If you neglect the sick and they die, it will be sad to 
think that you lost the last opportunity of helping them ; 
if you neglect the sick and they recover, your power to 
influence them will be weakened forever. 

HABITS. 

" Whatsoever ye do in word or deed, do all in the name 
of the Lord Jesus." 

Principles and habits are as readily taught as Greek 
and Latin, and they are of vastly more importance. 

Evil habits begin in cobweb's, and end in chains. 

Good habits are begun with difficulty, but continue with 
ioy. 



THE PREACHER AND HIS WORK. 207 

He who sees little does less. 

Read no book, do no act, harbor no thought, that makes 
God less near, Christ less precious, eternity less real. 

If piety decay, zeal will die. 

Have no self. 

Be actuated in everything by principle. 

A minister's habits should be such as to impress men 
with the truth of his character and the dignity of his 
calling. 

BOOKS AND READING. 

The books you read will decide the life you live. 

The greater the man the fewer the books. 

A man of one book is a man of power. 

He who wants to preach well should read Baxter's 
"Reformed Pastor," and read it often. 

No book published within the last thousand years has 
done so much to promote good preaching as Fenelon's 
"Dialogues on Eloquence." 

Whitefield and Jay were great students of Matthew 
Henry. 

No man has ever become a truly great preacher who did 
not know and love the Bible. 

Read with a purpose, or read not at all. 

No one can estimate the result of giving or lending a 
book, 

PRAISE. 

He who seeks praise seldom gains it. 

Praise makes a wise man humble, a fool proud. 

A minister should be saddened by some men's praise. 

When men praise thee, ask, Will Christ accept me 1 

Life praise is better than lip praise. 



208 REMARKABLE NARRATIVES. 

Christ praised Mary more than Martha. 

" As the fining pot for silver, and the furnace for gold ; 
so is a man to his praise." 

Some men will praise thee to try thee. 

If a good man praise thee, praise God. 

Seek souls for Christ, not praise for self. 

" How can ye believe which receive honor one of 
another ! V 

SUCCESS. 

He who grasps authority seldom gains influence. 

He who wishes to succeed must seek men's welfare, not 
their "well done." 

Do not prove trmth too much, or you will make men 
doubt it. 

Affectation spoils good sermons, and makes bad ones 
ridiculous. 

The successful man is the man who has done most for 
others. 

You can do all God calls you to do. 

What we do depends on what we are. 

If our words are to have power with men, our lives must 
convince them of our sincerity. 

MISCELLANEOUS. 

All changes in life begin by a change in thought. 

You will not succeed if you have two objects. 

Aim to be a good public reader ; few are, but all ought 
to be. 

A wise man may be in haste, but not in a hurry. 

God helps by hindering. 

Nothing is good with God's frown, nothing bad with His 
smile. 



HOW TO PREACH. 209 

Manner is something with all, everything with some. 

Contradict lies by life. 

Be always at leisure to do good. 

If you are a hireling, flee when danger threatens. 

When you are willing to bear the guilt of a sin, it is 
not necessary to reprove it. 

You need not flee from temptation if you are willing to 
commit the sin. 

Here are some of your Lord's own words as a finish : 
"Ye are my friends." " Lo, I am with you alway." "My 
reward is with me." " Watch and pray." 



How to Preach. 

Make no apologies. If you have the Lord's message, 
deliver it ; if not, hold your peace. Have short prefaces 
and introductions. Say your best things first, and stop 
before you get prosy. Do not spoil the appetite for dinner 
by too much thin soup. Leave self out of the pulpit, and 
take Jesus in. Defend the Gospel, and let the Lord 
defend you and your character. If you are lied about, 
thank the devil for putting you on your guard, and take 
care that the story shall never come true. If you do not 
want to " break," make your shirt-col' ar an inch larger, 
and give your blood a chance to flow back to the heart. 
Do not get excited too soon. Do not run away from your 
hearers. Engine driving-wheels fly fast with no load, but 
when they draw anything they go slower. It takes a cold 
hammer to bend a hot iron. Heat up the people, but 
keep the hammer cool. Do not bawl and scream. Too 
14 



210 REMARKABLE NARRATIVES. 

much water stops mill-wheels, and too much noise drowns 
sense. Empty vessels ring the loudest. Powder isn't 
shot. Thunder isn't lightning. Lightning kills. If you 
have lightning, you can afford to thunder ; but do not try 
to thunder out of an empty cloud. 

Do not scold the people. Do not abuse the faithful 
souls who come to meeting rainy days, because of the 
others who do not come. Preach the best to small con- 
gregations. Jesus preached to one woman at the well, and 
she got all Samaria out to hear Him next time. Ventilate 
your meeting-room. Sleeping in church is due to bad air 
oftener than to bad manners. Do not repeat, saying, " As 
I said before.' 5 If you said it before, say something else 
after. Leave out words you cannot define. Stop your 
declamation and talk to folks. Come down from stilted 
and sacred tones, and become a little child. Change the 
subject if it s;oes hard. Do not tire yourself and every- 
one else out. Do not preach till the middle of your 
sermon buries the beginning, and is buried by the end. 
Look people in the face, and live so that you are not afraid 
of them. Take long breaths, fill your lungs, and keep 
them full. Stop to breathe before the air is exhausted. 
Then you will not finish off each sentence-ah, with a 
terrible gasp-ah, as if you were dying for air-ah, as some 
preachers do-ah, and so strain their ]ungs-ah, and never 
find it out-ah, because their friends dare not tell them-ah, 
and so leave them to make sport of the Philistines-ah. 
Inflate your lungs. It is easier to run a mill with a full 
pond than an empty one. Be moderate at first. Hoist 
the gate a little way ; when you are half through, raise a 
little more ; when nearly done, put on a full head of 



AN EMINENT SAINT. 211 

water. Aim at the mark. Hit it. Stop and see where 
the shot struck, and then fire another broadside. Pack 
your sermons. Make your words like bullets. A board 
hurts a man worse if it strikes him edgewise. — Selected. 



An Eminent Saint. 

When Hester Ann Rogers was about fifteen years of age 
she attended the preaching of the Rev. David Simpson, a 
Methodist minister, which brought great conviction on her 
heart. Horrified at her dreadful condition, she firmly 
resolved on turning to God, and at once threw aside all 
her superfluous ornaments, and dressed plainly. At 
length, while in the act of partaking of the Lord's Supper, 
God spoke peace to her soul, and she rejoiced greatly. A 
heavy cross was in store for her. All her relatives, in- 
cluding her mother, were greatly opposed to her going 
among the Methodists, and they threatened to disown her 
if she continued to attend their meetings. The Saviour 
spoke to her heart, and said : "If any man will come after 
me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow 
me." To this she responded : " Lord, I will forsake all 
and follow thee ; I will joyfully bear thy cross, only give 
me thyself ! " God strengthened her greatly for this trial, 
and gave her a mouth and wisdom which all her enemies 
could not gainsay or resist. She implored her mother not 
to confine her from Methodist meetings any more, offering 
to become a servant in her house, and to do all the work, if 
she could only be allowed to attend Methodist meetings. 
Her mother consented, expecting that she would soon 



212 REMARKABLE NARRATIVES. 

become weary and give it up. Tn this, however, she 
was disappointed. Her daughter cheerfully accepted this 
menial position, and labored faithfully in her new calling. 
Her experience at this time is thus related in her diary : 
" I could neither eat nor sleep much for many days and 
nights. The love of God shed abroad in my heart was 
now my meat and drink ; and the thoughts of the amazing 
depths of grace which had plucked me as a brand from 
the burning quite overcame me — me, the most obstinate 
offender, who had so long and so repeatedly resisted and 
grieved His Holy Spirit ! This love of my God and 
Saviour, so unmerited and free, overflowed my soul, nor 
had I for eight months any interruption to my bliss. 

" ' Not a cloud did arise to darken my skies, 
Or hide for a moment my Lord from my eyes.' 

Yet I had daily crosses to take up and endure, but I 
rejoiced in being accounted worthy to bear the cross for 
Him who died to purchase my peace. His arm hath 
brought salvation from dangers which I knew not, and no 
weapon formed against me hath prospered. Every trial 
hath terminated in great good. I have been sheltered 
from every storm, been fed with the riches of His love, 
and comforted with the consolations of His Spirit ; I have 
lived in His smiles, and shall be preserved to His glorious 
kingdom." 

It was not long, however, before she was led to see that 
inbred sin still remained in her heart ; and she had many 
painful experiences in battling with her bosom foe. 
The reading of that inestimable book, "Wesley's Plain 
Account of Christian Perfection," did her much good, and 
she saw it was her privilege to be cleansed from all sin, 



AN EMINENT SAINT. 213 

and wholly sanctified to God through her entire being. 
She longed, yea, even panted for this glorious work of 
grace. Nor did she rest until she knew that she had been 
made free from the inbeing of sin and filled with the Holy 
Ghost. She says : " I now walked in the unclouded light 
of His countenance; ' rejoicing evermore, praying without 
ceasing, and in everything giving thanks.' I resolved, 
however, at first I would not openly declare what the 
Lord had wrought ; but it was seen in my countenance, 
and, when asked respecting it, I durst not deny the 
wonders of His love ! I soon found that repeating His 
goodness confirmed my own faith more and more. I dared 
not live above a moment at a time, and that moment by 
faith in the Son of God. I never felt till now the full 
meaning of those words, * In him we live, and move, and 
have our being ; ' and again, ' I will dwell in them, and 
walk in them, and be their God. I will put my laws into 
their minds, and write them upon their hearts.' Glory be 
to my God, I felt it written there ; it was no longer I that 
lived, but Christ that lived in me. 

" I was so happy that I could not sleep in the night. 
Oh, what deep communion did my soul enjoy with God ! 
It was, indeed, a foretaste of heaven itself. Oh, my blessed 
Lord, I rejoice that I am thy purchased property, and not 
my own, and to thee I gladly yield spirit, soul and body. 

" For some days it has been a season of outward trials 
with me ; but T have enjoyed fellowship with God and 
great inward comforts. I have ever found, when He gives 
peculiar grace, He permits it to be tried ; but 1 prove ' as 
my day is, so is my strength.' Yes, glory to His name 
alone, I am more than conqueror ! and feel it the constant 
language of my heart, 



214 REMARKABLfc NARRATIVES. 

" ■ No cross, no suffering I decline, 
Only let all my heart be thine.' " 

Through all she endured much bodily weakness, yet her 
seraphic spirit mounted higher and yet higher in divine 
things. Hear the following glorious testimony : " I was 
so happy in the night that I had very little sleep, and I 
awoke with these words, ' The temple of an indwelling 
God ! ' My soul sinks into the depth of nothingness, and 
enjoys closer communion with Him this day than ever 
before. Every moment I feel such a weight of love as 
almost overpowers the faculties of nature ! I know I 
could bear no more and live \ but I often feel ready to 
cry, ' Oh, give me more and let me die ! I long to be freed 
from the earth ! But help me, Lord, to wait resigned, 
willing to suffer, or do for thee ! I need not lay this 
body down to feel thy presence ! Thou dwellest in my 
heart, and shalt forever dwell ! Thou art my present 
heaven, my soul's eternal all. 

" I went to bed last night so full of the love of God I 
could not sleep for hours, but continued in secret inter- 
course with my Saviour. At preaching this morning I 
was so overcome with the love, and presence and exceeding 
glory of my triune God, that I sunk down, unable to 
support it ! It was long before I could stand or speak. 
All this day I have been lost in depths of love unutterable ! 
At the love-feast I was again overwhelmed with His 
immediate presence. All around me is God." 

Another striking feature of this saintly woman's ex- 
perience was her intimate communion with each person of 
the Trinity. She testifies that " she kept a diary of her life 
from the time of her conversion to God — in her seventeenth 
year — till within a few days of her death, amounting 



AN EMINENT SAINT. 215 

with her letters and other manuscripts, to not less than 
three thousand quarto pages ; and every page clearly dis- 
covers that for the space of more than twenty years she 
enjoyed constant fellowship and communion with the 
triune God ; and she never forsook her first love, nor lost 
a sense of the divine favor." 

Referring to a sermon she heard preached on the dis- 
tinct relative offices of Father, Son and Holy Spirit, she 
says: "I was deeply penetrated with His presence, and 
stood » as if unable to move, and was insensible to all 
around me. While thus lost in communion with my 
Saviour, He spoke those words to my heart : 'All that 
I have is thine! I am Jesus, in whom dwells all 
the fulness of the Godhead bodily. I am thine ! My 
Spirit is thine ! My Father is thine ! They love thee 
as I love thee. The whole Deity is thine ! All God 
is and all He has is thine ! He even now over- 
shadows thee ! He now covers thee with a cloud of His 
presence.' All this was so realized to my soul, in a manner 
I cannot explain, that I sunk down motionless, being 
unable to sustain the weight of His glorious presence and 
fulness of love. At the altar this was renewed to me, but 
not in so large a measure. I believe, indeed, if this had 
continued as I felt it before, but for one hour, mortality 
must have been dissolved and the soul dislodged from its 
tenement of clay." 

Writing to her cousin, Robert Roe, she says : " As to 
myself, I see no end to my Lord's goodness. I find every 
day an increase of love, joy, peace and union, close, 
intimate union with the great Three-one. I feel I am very 
unworthy, yet offering up myself and my services on that 
altar which sanctifieth the gift, my God accepts a worthless 
worm through His beloved Son. He who is higher than 



216 REMARKABLE NARRATIVES. 

the highest stoops to dwell in my happy soul ; and I have 
communion with Him as a man and a friend. Sometimes 
in the night He so fills my soul with His glorious presence, 
that I think it will burst its prison and wing away ; and 
then, oh, then, where should I be ? Surrounded with angels, 
and convoyed by them to my God — my life, my treasure, 
and my crown ! I can even now scarce support the blissful 
thought." 

She died as she had lived, in holy triumph, in 1794, 
aged thirty-nine years, during twenty years of which she 
had continually walked with God. Her husband gives his 
own experience on this very trying occasion : " God alone 
can tell you what I felt in that dread moment, when the 
Lord gave the signal for dismission, and I was called to 
return the last parting kiss ! For some time I could only 
breathe, as it were, in silent accents, ' Oh, my God, let my 
latter end be like hers ! Come, oh, come quickly, and 
prepare me to follow her.' It is still the language of my 
bleeding heart : 

" ' Oh, let me on her image dwell, 
The soul transporting spectacle, 

On whom even angels gaze ! 
A pious saint, matured for God, 
And shaking off her earthly clod, 

To see His open face. 

" ■ I see the generous friend sincere I 
Her voice still vibrates in my ear, 

The voice of truth and love ! 
It calls me to put off my clay, 
And bids me soar with her away 

To fairer worlds above ! ' " 



A VISION OF HELL. 217 



A Vision of Hell. 

While residing in a British colony, says Rev. R. Young, 
a Wesleyan minister, as a Christian missionary I was 

called one morning to visit Miss D , who was said to 

be dying. Mrs. Young, by whom she was met weekly for 
religious instruction, feeling a deep interest in her spiritual 
welfare, accompanied me to her residence. We found her 
in the chamber of a neat little cottage, exceedingly ill, but 
confiding in the merits of Jesus ; and after spending some 
time with her in conversation and prayer, we commended 
her to God and took our departure, without the least hope 
of seeing her again in this life. Soon after we left she 
seemed to die, but as the usual signs of death — which so 
rapid]y develop themselves in that country — did not 
appear, her friends anxiously waited to see the end. 

She remained in that state for several days, during 
which period we repeatedly visited her, and the only indi- 
cations we could perceive that life was not extinct, were 
a slight foaming at the mouth and a little warmth about 
the region of the heart. She was watched with great 
interest both night and day, and after having been in this 
state for nearly a week, she opened her eyes and said : 

"Mr. C is dead." Her attendants, thinking she 

was under the influence of delirium, replied that she was 
mistaken, as he was not only alive but well. " Oh, no ! " 
said she, ' ' he is dead ; for a short time ago, as I passed the 
gates of hell, I saw him descend into the pit, and the 

blue flame cover him. Mr. B is also dead, for he 

arrived at heaven just as I was leaving that happy place. 
I saw its beautiful gates thrown wide open to receive him, 



218 REMARKABLE NARRATIVES. 

and heard the hosts of heaven shout, ' Welcome, weary 
pilgrim ! ' " 

Mr. C was a neighbor, but a very wicked person, 

and Mr. B- , who lived at no great distance, many 

years had been a consistent member of the Church of God. 
The parties who heard Miss D 's startling and con- 
fident statements immediately sent to make inquiries 
about the two individuals alluded to, and found, to their 
utter astonishment, that the former had dropped down 
dead about half an hour before, whilst in the act of tying 
his shoe, and that about the same time the latter had 
suddenly passed into the eternal world. For the truth of 
these facts I do solemnly vouch. She then went on to tell 
them where she had been, and what she had seen and 
heard. 

After being sufficiently recovered to leave the house, she 
paid us a visit, and Mrs. Young, as well as myself, heard 
from her own lips the following account of what she had 
passed through : She informed us that at the time she was 
supposed to -die a celestial being conducted her into the 
invisible world, and mysteriously unveiled to her the 
realities of eternity. He took her first to heaven ; but 
she was told that as she yet belonged to time, she could 
not be permitted to enter that glorious place, but only to 
behold it, which she represented as infinitely exceeding in 
beauty and splendor the most elevated conceptions of 
mortals, and whose glories no language could describe. 

She told us that she beheld the Saviour upon a throne 
of light and glory, surrounded by the four-and-twenty 
elders and a great multitude which no man could number, 
among whom she recognized patriarchs, prophets, apostles, 
martyrs, and all the missionaries who had died in that 



A VISION OF HULL. 219 

colony, besides many others, whom she mentioned, and 
although those parties were not named by the angel that 
attended her, yet she said that seeing them was to know 
them. 

She described those celestial spirits as being variously 
employed, and although she felt herself inadequate to con- 
vey any definite idea of the nature of that employment, yet 
it appeared to be adapted to their respective mental tastes 
and spiritual attainments. She also informed us that she 
heard sweet and most enrapturing music, such as she had 
never heard before, and made several attempts to give us 
some idea of its melodious character, but found her notes 
too earthly for that purpose. 

While thus favored, the missionaries already referred ro, 
and other happy spirits, as they glided past her, sweetly 
smiled, and said they knew whence she came, and, if 
faithful to the grace of God, she would, in a short time, be 
admitted into their delightful society. All the orders of 
heaven Were in perfect and blessed harmony, and appeared 
to be directed in all their movements by a mysterious in- 
fluence, proceeding from the throne of God. 

She was next conducted to a place whence she had a 
view of hell, which she described in the most terrific 
language, and declared that the horrid shrieks of lost 
spirits still seemed to sound in her ears. As she ap- 
proached the burning pit, a tremendous eftort was made 
to draw her into it, but she felt herself safe under the pro- 
tection of her guardian angel. She recognized many in the 
place of torment whom she had known on earth, and even 
some who had been thought Christians. 

There were princes and peasants, learned and unlearned, 
writhing together in one unquenchable fire, where all 



220 REMARKABLE NARRATIVES. 

earthly distinctions and titles were forever at an end. 

Among them she beheld a Miss W , who had occupied 

a prominent station in society, but had died during the 
illness of this young woman. She said that when Miss 

W saw her approach, her shrieks were appalling, 

beyond the power of language to describe, and that she 
made a desperate but unsuccessful effort to escape. 

The punishment of lost souls she represented as sym- 
bolizing the respective sins which had occasioned their 

condemnation. Miss W , for instance, was condemned 

for the love of money, which I have every reason to believe 
was her besetting sin, and she seemed robed in a garment 

of gold all on fire. Mr. O , whom she saw, was lost 

through intemperance, and he appeared to be punished by 
devils administering to him some boiling liquid. She said 
there was no sympathy among these unhappy spirits, but 
that unmixed hatred, in all its frightful forms, prevailed in 
every part of the fiery regions. She beheld parents and 
children, husbands and wives, and those who had been 
companions in sin, exhibiting every mark of deep hatred 
to each other's society, and heard them in fiendish accents 
upbraiding and bitterly cursing each other. She saw 
nothing in hell but misery and despair, and heard nothing 
there but the most discordant sounds, accompanied with 
weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth. 

While she gazed on this revolting scene, many souls 
arrived from earth, and were greedily seized by innumer- 
able devils of monstrous shape, amid horrid shouts of 
hellish triumph, and tortured according to their crimes. 

This fearful view of the state of the lost agrees with the 
testimony of S. T., whose case is on record in Mr. Wesley's 
Journal (Vol. II., pp. 22-26, edit. 1829). She tells us that 



HOW TO KILL A PRAYER-MEETING. 221 

while in her trance the place of the condemned was 
unveiled, and she u saw a vast number who stood up curs- 
ing and blaspheming God, and spitting at each other, 
and many were making balls of fire, and throwing them at 
one another.'' She also "saw many others who had cups 
of fire out of which they were drinking down flames, and 
others who held cards of fire in their hands, and seemed 
to be playing with them." 



How to Kill a Prayer =rieeting. 

1. Forget all about it until the hour arrives. 

2. Come ten minutes late, and sit near the door. 

3. Drag the music. Slow, painfully slow singing is so 
appropriate for a dead prayer-meeting. 

4. When the meeting is begun, wait for others to speak 
and pray. 

5. When you do take part, occupy about twenty 
minutes. 

6. Be sure and bewail the low spiritual condition of 
the Church. 

7. When the meeting closes, go out as from a funeral. 
You can speak with your brethren or the stranger at some 
other time and place. 

8. If you mention the meeting during the week, tell how 
dull it was. 

9. If this does not kill the prayer-meeting, stay away 
entirely for six months or a year. — SeL 



222 REMARKABLE NARRATIVES. 



How to Secure a Good Prayer-fleeting. 

We sympathize deeply with the true and the faithful — 
not a large number in any Church— who are always at 
" our " prayer-meetings, and who wish they knew how to 
make it more interesting. You want to know how to 
bring live coals to the altar as you go to waken its fires. 
You want not merely to enjoy more, but to have others 
enjoy more ; and you want this meeting to be an instru- 
ment of doing your Church and the community good. How 
shall you aid ? 

Let the weekly prayer-meeting live in your heart. Think 
of it when in your business ; when you read your Bible, 
and see if you do not light upon a beautiful text to carry 
there ; when you read the religious paper, and see if you 
do not find some thought or some anecdote or some fact 
which you can use in the meeting. See if you can't gather 
a few drops of the dew which falls on Hermon. You may 
not be a theologian or a genius, but you can do something, 
if you will think of it beforehand. You can utter a 
thought in a few moments, which cost you perhaps days 
to think out. A single thought that has been revolving 
in your mind, may be valuable in proportion as it has 
been thought over. The pebble which David chose was 
one that had been washed and smoothed in the brook a 
long time. It was all the better for its polishing. 

On the day of your meeting, don't forget to think about 
it ; mention it in your family worship ; let your family see 
that it lives in your heart. Be sure and pray for it before 
you go to it. Ask, plead that Christ will be manifested in 



HOW TO SECURE A GOOD PRAYER-MEETING. 223 

it. Pray that the Holy Spirit will be present to warm, 
cheer and animate every heart. 

Feel responsibility for it. Make it a solemn duty, a 
habit, and a privilege to be there. Go with a cheerful face. 
Don't go acting, looking, or feeling as if you had a chain 
around you called Duty, by which you were dragged to the 
place. If the room is dark, move round and get more 
lights. If not warm and cheerful, go to your brethren, 
and insist upon it that the room must be comfortable, 
pleasant, and inviting. If others seem inclined to shirk, 
don't you. If the singing is tame or dull, or there is none 
at all, be careful and see some one of the brethren who is a 
singer, and urge him to be there. If you can't sing, he 
must go. If you can, you need his aid. Go up near the 
pulpit or table, up where your minister and your brethren 
can see you, and feel that your breath is warm. 

If the meeting is thrown open for remarks, don't sit 
and wait for others. Be ready. Have your gun loaded, 
and shoot quick. There is no life in silence or in waiting. 
Let your prayer be short. It may be much longer than 
you think it is. I once heard and joyfully united in six 
prayers, no one of which was over two minutes long. They 
were intensely good. 

Feel under obligation to have variety in your meeting. 
It is fatal to make a prayer-meeting stereotyped. Can't 
you sometimes have something new sung? Can't you 
get this or that diffident young man to come in and say a 
few words 1 Can't you get that other man who never 
speaks to open his mouth *? You must go to them alone 
before the meeting, and speak encouragingly to them. 
Don't scare them by making them think they must make 
a speech. Go to your meeting hopeful — I mean, really 



224 REMARKABLE NARRATIVES. 

believing Christ, when He promises to be in the midst of 
the two or three who gather in His name. You may feel, 
perhaps, that you are cold and others are cold ; but there 
certainly will be One there, Christ, who is not cold. Don't 
always be harping on one string, either in your prayers or 
in your exhortations. Keep the wheels out of the old 
deep rut. Some are always dwellkig upon a revival, a 
revival, as if there was nothing done or to be prayed for 
but this ; whereas there is the spirituality of the church : 
there is the Word, the seed sown ; there is the Sabbath 
School ; there is the liberality of the people of God ; there 
is the soil preparing and to be prepared for the seed of the 
Word ; and all these belong to the prayer-meeting. 

Don't scold. It will do no good. Those present feel 
that they don't deserve it, and the absent don't hear it. 
The prayer-meeting is not the place to groan under spiritual 
dyspepsia. Don't whip your pastor with your prayers. 
His heart is heavy enough ; but he knows it is often 
best to keep his heart-aches to himself, and to be at least 
outwardly cheerful. He wants and needs your earnest 
prayers and sympathies. 

Don't teach false theology. You sometimes hear men 
say, " If now this church would only come down on her 
knees In the dust before God, a revival would follow." 
Don't you know that if she should thus come down, the 
revival is already there ? 

Don't carry a burdened conscience to the prayer- 
meeting. If to-day or the last week you have wronged 
anyone in bargains, in words, or in any way, settle it with 
him and with God before you come to the meeting. Clear 
your conscience of the burden of known sin. You will 
find the meeting dead and cold to you if you do not. Our 
sins separate us and God. — Rev. John Todd. 



A POWERFUL REVIVALIST. 225 



A Powerful Revivalist. 

C. G. Finney was no ordinary man. In his early years 
he devoted himself to the study of law, in which pro- 
fession he was for some time engaged. This employment 
led him to read his Bible, because he found it quoted in 
the law books. He noticed, however, that the professing 
Christians around him were constantly asking God to pour 
out His Spirit, and give them a revival ; and yet, according 
to their own confessions, they failed to receive any answer. 
This was a great stumbling-block to him, and nearly drove 
him into scepticism. On further examination of the- 
Bible, he discovered that the cause of their failure was 
their neglect to meet the conditions on which God pro- 
mises to answer prayer. 

After a great deal of searching the Scriptures and 
debating in his mind, he was led to an unconditional 
surrender of himself to God. His conversion was remark- 
ably clear and definite. His joy was deep. He thus 
describes his feelings at this time : 

" My heart seemed to be liquid within me. All my 
feelings seemed to rise and flow out, and the utterance of 
my heart was, ' I want to pour my whole soul out to God.' 
The rising of my soul was so great that I rushed into 
the back room of my office to pray. There was no fire and 
no light in the room ; nevertheless it appeared to me as if 
it was perfectly light. As I went in and shut the door 
after me, it seemed as if I met the Lord Jesus Christ face 
to face. It did not occur to me then, nor did it for some 
time afterward, that it was wholly a mental state. On 
the contrary, it seemed to me that I saw Him as I could 
15 



226 REMARKABLE NARRATIVES. 

see any other man. He said nothing, but looked at me in 
such a manner as to break me right down at His feet. I 
have alwa}^s regarded this as a most remarkable state of 
mind ; for it seemed to me a reality that He stood before 
me, and I fell down at His feet and poured out my soul to 
Him. I wept aloud like a child, and made such con- 
fessions as I could with choked utterance. It seemed to 
me that I bathed His feet with my tears ; and yet I 
had no distinct impression that I touched Him, that I 
recollect. As soon as I became calm enough to break off 
from the interview, I returned to the front office, and 
found the fire I had made of large wood nearly burned out. 
But as I was about to take a seat by the fire, I received a 
mighty baptism of the Holy Ghost. Without any ex- 
pectation of it, without having the thought in my mind 
that there was any such thing for me, without any recol- 
lection that I have heard the things mentioned by any 
person in the world, the Holy Ghost descended upon me in 
a maimer that seemed to go through me, body and soul. I 
could feel impression, like a wave of electricity, going 
through and through me. Indeed, it seemed to come in 
waves and waves of liquid love, for I could not express it 
in any other way. It seemed like the very breath of God. 
I can recollect distinctly that it seemed to fan me like 
immense wings. I wept aloud with joy and love, and I 
doubt not but I should say I literally bellowed out the 
unutterable gushings of my heart. These waves came 
over me one after another, until I recollect I cried out, ' I 
shall die if these waves continue to pass over me. Lord, I 
cannot bear any more ; ' yet I had no fear of death." 

Being assured that God wanted him to preach, he gave 
up the study of law, and at once commenced his work as 



A POWERFUL REVIVALIST. 227 

an ambassador of the Cross. From the first his labors 
were eminently successful. He travailed in birth for 
souls. On these occasions he would not give up praying 
until God had assured him that his prayer would be 
answered. 

He was licensed by the Presbyterians to preach, and 
after having held some successful revival meetings, he was 
ordained to the ministry. 

His autobiography is full of the most thrilling incidents 
in connection with his labors. His revivals were powerful. 
Men of strong wills and educated minds — physicians, law- 
yers and judges — were convicted under his preaching, and 
fell like dead men to the floor. During twenty days which 
he spent in Rome, N.Y., there were five hundred conver- 
sions. The same number were converted in a few weeks' 
revival in Utica. The following are some instances from 
his autobiography of the wonderful manifestations of divine 
power which took place under his labors. Describing 
some meetings in a very wicked place, he says : 

" I stopped at the village hotel, and there learned that 
there were no religious meetings held in that town at the 
time. They had a brick meeting-house, but it was locked 
up. By personal effort I got a few people to assemble in 
the parlor of a Christian lady in the place, and preached 
to them on the evening after my arrival. As I passed 
round the village I was shocked with the horrible profanity 
that I heard among the men wherever I went. I obtained 
leave to preach in the school-house on the next Sabbath, 
but before the Sabbath arrived I was much discouraged; 
and almost terrified, in view of the state of society which I 
witnessed. On Saturday, the Lord applied with power to 
iny heart the following words, addressed by the Lord Jesus 



228 REMARKABLE NARRATIVES. 

to Paul (Acts xviii. 9, 10) : ' Be not afraid, but speak, and 
hold not thy peace ; for I am with thee, and no man shall 
set on thee to hurt thee ; for I have much people in this 
city/ This completely subdued my fears ; but my heart 
was loaded with agony for the people. On Sunday morn- 
ing, I arose early and retired to a grove not far from the 
village, to pour out my heart before God for a blessing on 
the labors of the day. I could not express the agony of 
my soul in words ; but struggled with much groaning and, 
I believe, with many tears, for an hour or two without 
getting relief. I returned to my room in the hotel, but 
almost immediately came back to the grove. This I did 
thrice. The last time I got complete relief, just as it was 
time to go to meeting. I went to the school-house, and 
found it filled to its utmost capacity. I took out my little 
pocket-Bible, and read for my text, ' God so loved 
the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that 
whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have 
everlasting life.' I exhibited the love of God as contrasted 
with the manner in which He was treated by those for 
whom He gave up His Son. I charged home their 
profanity upon them \ and, as I recognized among my 
hearers several whose profanity I had particularly noticed, 
in the fulness of my heart and the gushing of my tears I 
pointed to them, and said, ' I heard these men call upon 
God to damn their fellows/ The Word took powerful 
effect. Nobody seemed offended, but almost everybody 
greatly melted. At the close of the service the amiable 
landlord, Mr. Copeland, rose and said that he would open 
the meeting-house in the afternoon. He did so. The 
meeting-house was full, and, as in the morning, the Word 
took wonderful effect. Thus a powerful revival com- 



A POWERFUL REVIVALIST. 229 

oienced in the village, which soon after spread in every 
direction, I think it was on the second Sunday after this, 
when I came out of the pulpit in the afternoon, an aged 
man approached, and said to me, ' Can you not come and 
preach in our neighborhood 1 We have never had any 
religious preaching there.' I inquired the direction an 1 
the distance, and appointed to preach there the next after- 
noon (Monday) at five o'clock, in their school-honse. I 
had preached three times in the village, and attended two 
prayer-meetings on the Lord's Day ; and on Monday I 
went on foot to fulfil this appointment. The weather was 
very warm that day, and before I arrived there I felt 
almost too faint to walk, and greatly discouraged in my 
mind. I sat down in the shade by the wayside, and felt 
as if I was too faint to reach there ; and, if I did, too 
much discouraged to open my mouth to the people. When 
I arrived, I found the house full, and immediately com- 
menced the service by reading a hymn. They attempted 
to sing, but the horrible discord agonized me beyond 
expression. I leaned forward, put my elbows upon my 
knees and my hands over my ears, and shook my head 
withal, to shut out the discord, which even then I could 
barely endure. As soon as they had ceased singing T 
cast myself down upon my knees, almost in a state of 
desperation. The Lord opened the windows of heaven 
upon me, and gave me great enlargement and power in 
prayer. Up to this moment I had no idea what text I 
should use on the occasion. As I rose from my knees the 
Lord gave me this : i Up, get you out of this place, for the 
Lord will destroy this city.' I told the people, as nearly 
as I could recollect, where they would find it, and went on 
to tell them of the destruction of Sodom. I gave them an 



230 REMARKABLE NARRATIVES. 

outline of the history of Abraham and Lot, and their 
relations to each other ; of Abraham's praying for Sodom, 
and of Lot, as the only pious man that was found in the 
city. While I was doing this, I was struck with the fact 
that the people looked exceedingly angry about me. Many 
countenances appeared very threatening, and some of the 
men near me looked as if they were about to strike me. 
This I could not understand, as I was only giving them, 
with great liberty of spirit, some interesting sketches of 
Bible history. As soon as I had completed the historical 
sketch, I turned upon them, and said that I had understood 
that they never had any religious meetings in that neigh- 
borhood ; and applying that fact, I thrust at them with 
the sword of the Spirit with all my might. From that 
moment the solemnity increased with great rapidity. In 
a few moments there seemed to fall upon the congregation 
an instantaneous shock. I cannot describe the sensation 
that I felt, nor that which was apparent in the congre- 
gation ; but the Word seemed literally to cut like a sword. 
The power from on high came down upon them in such a 
torrent that they fell from their seats in every direction. 
In less than a minute nearly the whole congregation were 
either down on their knees or on their faces, or in some 
position prostrate before God. Everyone was crying or 
groaning for mercy upon his own soul. They paid k.o 
further attention to me or to my preaching. I tried to get 
their attention, but I could not. I observed the ajred 
man, who had invited me there, as still retaining his seat 
near the centre of the house. He was staring around him 
with a look of unutterable astonishment. Pointing: to 
him, I cried at the top of my voice, ' Can't you pray 1 ' He 
knelt down and roared out a short prayer, about as loud 



A POWERFUL REVIVALIST. 231 

as he could hollow ; but they paid no attention to him. 
After looking around for a few moments, I knelt down 
and put my hand on the head of a young man who was 
kneeling at my feet, and engaged in prayer for mercy on 
his soul ; I got his attention, and preached Jesus in his 
ear. In a few moments he seized Jesus by faith, and 
then broke out in a prayer for those around him. I then 
turned to another in the same way, and with the same 
result ; and then another, and another, till I know not 
how many had laid hold of Christ, and were full of prayer 
for others. After continuing in this way till nearly sun- 
set, I was obliged to commit the meeting to the charge of 
the old gentleman who had invited me, and go to fulfil an 
appointment in another place for the evening. In the 
afternoon of the next day I was sent for to go down to this 
place, as they had not been able to break up the meeting. 
They had been obliged to leave the school-house, to give 
place to the school ; but had removed to a private house 
near by, where I found a number of persons still too 
anxious and too much loaded down with conviction to go 
to their homes. These were soon subdued by the Word of 
God, and I believe all obtained a hope before they went 
home. Observe, I was a total stranger in that place, had 
never seen or heard of it until 'as I have related. But 
here, at my second visit, I learned that the place was called 
Sodom, by reason of its wickedness ; and the old man who 
invited me was called Lot, because he was the only pro- 
fessor of religion in the place. After this manner the 
revival broke out in this neighborhood. I have not been 
in this neighborhood for many years ; but in 1856, I think, 
while laboring in Syracuse, N.Y., I was introduced to a 
minister of Christ from St. Lawrence County, by the name 



232 REMARKABLE NARRATIVES. 

of Cross. He said to me, * Mr. Finney, you don't know 
me; but do you remember preaching in a place called 
Sodom T I said, 'I shall never forget it.' He replied, 'I 
was then a young man, and was converted at that meeting.' 
He is still living." 

Of the greatness of one revival held in Rochester, he 
says it "attracted so much attention throughout New York, 
New England, and many parts of the United States, that 
the very fame of it was an efficient instrument in the hands 
of the Spirit of God, in promoting the greatest revivals of 
religion throughout the land that this country had then 
ever witnessed." An eminent minister, in speaking of this 
revival says : " That was the greatest work of God, and 
the greatest revival of religion, that the world has ever 
seen in so short a time. One hundred thousand were 
reported as having connected themselves with churches as 
the results." 

The time had now "come when his experience in the 
things of God was to be deepened. He says: " During this 
winter (1843) the Lord gave my own soul a very thorough 
overhauling and fresh baptism of His Spirit. This winter 
in particular, my mind was exceedingly exercised on the 
question of personal holiness ; and in respect to the state of 
the Church, their want of power with God. I gave myself 
up to a great deal of prayer. I rose at four o'clock, and 
generally spent the time in prayer until breakfast, at eight 
o'clock. My days were spent, as far as I could find time, 
in searching the Scriptures. I read nothing else all winter 
but my Bible, and a great deal of it seemed new to me. 
The whole Scriptures seemed to me all ablaze with light, 
and not only light, but it seemed as if God's Word was 
instinct with the very life of God. 



A POWERFUL REVIVALIST. 233 

" After praying in this way for weeks and months, the 
thought that I might be deceiving myself, when it first 
occurred to me, stung me almost like an adder. It created 
a pang that I cannot describe. The passages of Scripture 
that occurred to me, in that direction, for a few months 
greatly increased my distress. But directly I was enabled 
to fall back upon the will of God. I said to the Lord that 
if He saw that it was wise and best, and that His honor 
demanded that I should be left to be deluded and go down 
to hell, I accepted His will, and I said to Him, i Do with 
me as seemeth to thee good.' 

"Just before this occurrence, I had a great struggle to 
consecrate myself to God in a higher sense than I had ever 
before seen to be my duty, or conceived as possible. I had 
often before laid my family all upon the altar of God, and 
left them there to be disposed of at His discretion. But at 
this time that I now speak of, I had a great struggle about 
giving up my wife to the will of God. She was in very 
feeble health, and it was evident that she could not live 
long. I had never before seen so clearly what is implied in 
laying her and all that I possessed upon the altar of God ; 
and for hours I struggled upon my knees to give up unquali 
fiedly to the will of God. But I found myself unable to 
do it. I was so shocked and surprised at this that I per- 
spired profusely with agony. I struggled, and prayed, and 
prayed, until I was exhausted, and still found myself 
unable to give up all to God's will, in such a way as 
to make no objection to His disposing of her just as He 
pleased. But I was enabled, after struggling for a few 
moments with this discouragement and bitterness, which I 
have since attributed to the fiery darts of Satan, to fall 
back in a deeper sense than I had ever done before upon 



234 REMARKABLE NARRATIVES. 

the infinitely blessed and perfect will of God. I then 
told the Lord that I had confidence in Him ; that I was 
perfectly willing to give myself, my wife and family, all to 
be disposed of according to His own wisdom. I then had 
a deeper view of consecration to God than ever before. I 
spent a long time upon my knees considering the matter 
over, and giving up everything to the will of God ; the 
interest of the Church, the progress of religion, the conver- 
sion of the world, and the salvation or damnation of my 
own soul, as the will of God might decide. I went so far 
as to say to the Lord, with all my heart, that He might do 
anything with me or mine, to which His blessed will could 
consent ; that I had such perfect confidence in His good- 
ness and love as to believe He could consent to nothing to 
which I could object. I felt a kind of holy boldness, tell- 
ing Him to do with me just as seemed to Him good. So deep 
and perfect a resting in the will of God I had never before 
known. My mind settled into perfect stillness. I seemed 
to be in a state of perfect rest, body and soul. The ques- 
tion frequently rose during the day, * Do you still adhere 
to your consecration, and abide in the will of God ? ' I 
said, 'Yes, I take nothing back/ Nothing troubled me. 
I was neither elated nor depressed ; I was neither joyful 
nor sorrowful. My confidence in God was perfect; my 
acceptance of His will was perfect, and my mind was calm 
as heaven. Holiness unto the Lord seemed to be inscribed 
on all the exercises of my mind. My prayers were swal- 
lowed up in the will of God. Of course my mind was too 
full of the subject to preach anything except a full and 
present salvation in the Lord Jesus Christ. My soul was 
wedded to Christ in a sense which I had never had any 
thought or conception of before. That passage, ' My grace 



A POWERFUL REVIVALIST. 235 

is sufficient for thee/ meant so much. I could understand 
the prophet when he said, 'His name shall be called 
Wonderful, Councillor, the Mighty God, the Everlasting 
Father, the Prince of Peace.' " 

After this Mr. Finney was more useful than ever. He 
held revivals in Rochester, Birmingham, London, Bolton, 
and Boston. In the latter place it is estimated that 
several thousand persons were converted. In these places 
the educated and more intelligent part of the community, 
as usual, were brought to Christ under his labors. 

While laboring in a certain town a friend of his showed 
him through a factory : He says : " As I went through I 
observed that there was a good deal of agitation among 
those who were busy at their looms, and their mules, 
and other implements of work. On passing through one 
of the apartments, where a great number of young women 
were attending to their weaving, I observed a couple of 
them eyeing me, and speaking very earnestly to each 
other ; and I could see that they were a good deal agitated, 
although they both laughed. I went slowly towards them. 
They saw me coming, and were evidently much excited. 
One of them was trying to mend a broken thread, and I 
observed that her hands trembled so that she could not 
mend it. I approached slowly, looking on each side at the 
machinery, as I passed ; but observed that this girl grew 
more and more agitated, and could not proceed with her 
work. When I came within eight or ten feet of her, I 
looked solemnly at her. She observed it, and was quite 
overcome, and sunk down and burst into tears. The im- 
pression caught almost like powder, and in a few moments 
nearly all in the room were in tears. The feeling spread 
through the factory. Mr. W , the owner of the 



236 REMARKABLE NARRATIVES. 

establishment, was present, and seeing the state of things, 
he said to the superintendent, 4 Stop the mill and let the 
people attend to religion : for it is more important that 
our souls should be saved than that this factory run.' The 
gate was immediately shut down, and the factory stopped ; 
but where should we assemble 1 The superintendent sug- 
gested that the mule-room was large • and the mules being 
run up we could assemble there. We did so, and a more 
powerful meeting I scarcely ever attended. It went on 
with great power. The building was large and had many 
people in it, from the garret to the cellar. The revival 
went through the mill with astonishing power, and in the 
course of a few days nearly all in the mill were hopefully 
converted." 

He says : "I shall never forget what a scene I passed 
through one day in my room at Dr. Lansing's. The Lord 
showed me as in a vision what was before me. He drew 
so near to me, while I was engaged in prayer, that my flesh 
literally trembled on my bones. I shook from head to 
foot, under a full sense of the presence of God. At first, 
and for some time, it seemed more like being on the top of 
Sinai, amidst its full thunderings, than in the presence of 
the cross of Christ. 

" Never in my life that I recollect, was I so awed and 
humbled before God as then. Nevertheless, instead of 
feeling like fleeing, I seemed drawn nearer and nearer to 
God — seemed to draw nearer to that Presence that filled 
me with such unutterable awe and trembling. After a 
season of great humiliation before Him, there came a great 
lifting up. God assured me that He would be with me 
and uphold me ; that no opposition should prevail against 
me ; that I had nothing to do in regard to all this matter, 



THE BRIDAL WINE-CUP. 237 

but to keep about my work, and wait for the salvation of 
God." 

He once induced a worldly church not only to abandon 
their finery and follies, but to adopt a public confession of 
their backslidings, which was read out to the congregation 
whilst the members of the church stood weeping. 



The Bridal Wine-Cup. 

" Pledge with wine ! Pledge with wine ! " cried the young 
and thoughtless Harvey Wood. " Pledge with wine ! * 
ran through the bridal party. 

The beautiful bride grew pale ; the decisive hour had 
come. She pressed her white hands together, and the 
leaves of the bridal wreath trembled on her brow ; her 
breath came quicker and her heart beat faster. 

"Yes, Marion, lay aside your scruples for this once," 
said the Judge, in a low tone, going towards his daughter ; 
" the company expect it. Do not so seriously infringe 
upon the rules of etiquette. In your own home do as you 
please ; but in mine, for this once, please me." 

Every eye was turned toward the bridal pair. Marion's 
principles were well known. Henry had been a con- 
vivialist, but of late his friends had noticed the change in 
his manners, the difference in his habits ; and to-night 
they watched him to see, as they sneeringly said, if he was 
tied down to a woman's opinions so soon. 

Pouring a brimming cup, they held it, with tempting 
smiles, towards Marion. She was very pale, though more 
composed ; and her hand shook not, as, smiling back, she 



238 REMARKABLE NARRATIVES. 

gracefully accepted the crystal tempter and raised it to her 
lips. But scarcely had she done so, when every hand 
was arrested by her piercing exclamation of, " Oh ! how 
terrible ! " 

" What is it ? " cried one and all, thronging together, 
for she had slowly carried the glass at arm's length, and 
was fixedly regarding it as though it were some hideous 
object. 

"Wait," she answered, while a light, which seemed 
inspired, shone from her dark eyes; '"wait, and I will 
tell you. I see," she added, slowly pointing at the 
sparkling, ruby liquid, " a sight that beggars all de- 
scription ! And yet listen ; I will paint it for you 
if I can. It is a lovely spot. Tall mountains crowned 
with verdure rise in awful sublimity around ; a river 
runs through, and bright flowers grow to the water's 
edge. There is a thick warm mist that the sun seeks 
vainly to pierce. Trees, lofty and beautiful, wave 
to the airy motion of birds. But there, a group of 
Indians gather ; they flit to and fro with something like 
sorrow upon their dark brows. And in their midst lies a 
manly form — but his cheek, how deathly ! — his eyes wild 
with the fitful fire of fever. One friend stands beside him 
— nay, I should say, kneels ; for see, he is pillowing that 
poor head upon his breast. Genius in ruins ! Oh, the 
high, holy-looking brow ! Why should death mark it, and 
he so young 1 Look how he throws back the damp curls ! 
See him clasp his hands ! Hear his thrilling shrieks for 
life ! Mark how he clutches at the form of his companion, 
imploring to be saved ! Oh, hear him call piteously his 
father's name ! See him twine his fingers together as he 



THE BRIDAL WINE-CUP. 239 

shrieks for his sister — his only sister, the twin of his soul, 
weeping for him in his distant, native land ! 

" See ! " she exclaimed, while the bridal party sunk 
back, the untasted wine trembling in their faltering grasp, 
and the Judge fell, overpowered, upon his seat. " See, 
his arms are lifted to heaven ! — he prays, how wildly, 
for mercy. Hot fever rushes through his veins. The 
friend beside him is weeping. Awe-stricken, the dark 
men move silently away, and leave the living and the 
dying together." 

There was a hush in that princely parlor, broken only by 
what seemed a smothered sob from some manly bosom. 
The bride stood yet upright, with quivering lip, and tears 
stealing to the outward edge of her lashes. Her beautiful 
arm had lost its tension, and the glass, with its little 
troubled red waves, came slowly towards the range of her 
vision. She spoke again. Every lip was mute. Her 
voice was low, faint, yet awfully distinct ; she still fixed 
her sorrowful glance upon the wine-cup, 

"It is evening now. The great white moon is coming 
up, and her beams lay gently on his forehead. He moves 
not. His eyes are set in their sockets ; dim are their 
piercing glances. In vain his friend whispers the name of 
father and sister. Death is there ! Death ; and no soft 
hand, no gentle voice to bless and soothe him. His head 
sinks back ; one convulsive shudder ; he is dead ! " 

A groan ran through the assembly, so vivid was her 
description, so unearthly her look, so inspired her manner, 
that what she described seemed actually to have taken 
place then and there. They noticed, also, that the bride- 
groom hid his face in his hands, and was weeping 



240 Remarkable narratives. 

11 Dead ! " she repeated again, her lips quivering faster and 
faster, and her voice more and more broken. " And there 
without a shroud they laid him down in that damp, reek- 
ing earth — the only son of a proud father, the only 
idolized brother of a fond sister ; and he sleeps to-day in 
that distant country, with no stone to mark the spot. 
There he lies — my father s son, my own twin brother — a 
victim to this deadly poison ! Father," she exclaimed, 
turning suddenly, while the tears rained down her beautiful 
cheeks, " father, shall I drink it now 1 " 

The form of the old Judge was convulsed with agony. 
He raised not his head, but in a smothered voice he filt- 
ered, " No, no, my child ; no ! " 

She lifted the glittering goblet, and letting it suddenly 
fall to the floor, it was dashed into a thousand pieces. 
Many a tearful eye watched her movement, and instan- 
taneously every wineglass was transferred to the marble 
table on which it had been prepared. Then, as she looked 
at the fragments of crystal, she turned to the company, 
saying, " Let no friend hereafter, who loves me, tempt me 
to peril my soul for wine. Not firmer are the everlasting 
hills than my resolve, God helping me, never to touch or 
taste the poison cup. And he to whom I have given my 
hand, who watched over my brother's dying form in that 
last solemn hour, and buried the dear wanderer there by 
the river in that land of gold, will, I trust, sustain me in 
that resolve. Will you not, my husband ? His glistening 
eye, his sad, sweet smile, was his answer. The Judge left 
the room, and when, an hour after, he returned, and with 
a more subdued manner took part in the entertainment of 
the bridal guests, no one could fail to read that he> too, had 



MISSED IT AT LAST. 241 

determined to banish the enemy at once and forever from 
his princely home. 

Those who were present at that wedding can never forget 
the impression so solemnly made. Many from that hour 
renounced forever the social glass. — Earnest Christian, 
March, 1867. 



Missed It at Last* 

"The harvest is past, the summer is ended and we are not- 
saved." — Jer. viii. 20. 

A kind-hearted, sympathetic physician sat by the bed- 
side of a young man to whom he had been summoned on a 
professional visit. After considering the patient's case, he 
frankly informed him that his time for this world was 
short. 

The invalid was alarmed, he had not anticipated death ; 
so near. He did not remember that the pale horse and his 
rider comes " In such an hour as ye think not w Looking 
up into the doctor's face with a despairing expression, he 
said, "I have missed it at last." 

" What have you missed ? " was the inquiry. " I have 
missed it at last," he repeated. " Misled what 1 " ct Doc- 
tor, I have missed the salvation of my soul." "Ah ! say 
not so, it is not so. Do you remember the thief on the 
cross V 9 "Yes, I remember the thief on the cross, and I 
remember that he never said to the Holy Ghost, ' Go thy 
way/ but I did. And now he is saying to me, ' Go thy 
way.'" 

While lying there gasping, and looking with a vacant, 
16 



242 REMARKABLE NARRATIVES. 

staring eye, he continued in substance : "I was awakened 
and anxious about my soul, but I did not then want to be 
saved. Something seemed to say, ' Don't put it off, make 
sure of salvation.' I said to myself, ' I will postpone it.' 
I knew I ought not to do it. I realized that I was a great 
sinner, and needed a Saviour, but dismissed the subject. 
Yet I could not get my own consent to do it, until I had 
promised that I would take it up again, at a time not 
remote, and more favorable. I bargained away, resisted 
and insulted the Holy Spirit. I never thought of coming 
to this. I neglected to make my salvation sure. And now 
I have missed it at last." 

"You remember," suggested the physician, "that there 
were some who came at the eleventh hour." " My eleventh 
hour," he replied, " was when I had that call of the Spirit. 
I have had none since — shall not have. I am given 
over to be lost. Oh ! I have missed it ! I have sold my 
soul for nothing, a feather, a straw — undone forever ! " 

Soon he raised his head, looked around the room, turn- 
ing his eyes in every direction, and then burying his face 
in the pillow cried out in agony, " I have missed it at last," 
and he passed away. 

" How shall we escape, if we neglect so great salvation.'' 
— Heb. ii. 3. He that despised Moses' law died without 
mercy. 



A SANCTIFIED CLASS-LEADER. 243 



A Sanctified CIass= Leader, 

William Carvosso thus wrote of his experience : " In the 
same happy frame of mind, which God brought me into at 
my conversion, I went on for the space of three months, not 
expecting any more conflicts ; but, oh, how greatly was T 
mistaken ! I was soon taught that I had not only to con- 
tend with Satan and the world from without, but with 
inward enemies also, which now began to make no small 
stir. From my first setting out in the way to heaven, I 
determined to be a Bible Christian. The Bible gave me a 
very clear map of the way to heaven, and told me that 
* without holiness no man shall see the Lord. 5 It is impos- 
sible for me to describe what I suffered from 'an evil heart 
of unbelief.' My heart appeared to me as a small garden, 
with a large stump of a tree in it, which had been recently 
cut down level with the ground, and a little loose earth 
strewed over it. Seeing something shooting up I did not 
like, I discovered, on attempting to pluck it up, the deadly 
remains of the carnal mind, and what a work must be done 
before I could be meet for the inheritance of the saints in 
light. My inward nature appeared so black and sinful, 
that I felt it impossible to rest in that state. Some, per- 
haps, will imagine that this may have arisen from the 
want of the knowledge of forgiveness. That could not be 
the case, for I never had one doubt of my acceptance ; the 
witness was so clear that Satan himself knew it was in 
vain to attack me from that quarter. What I then wanted 
was inward holiness, and for this I prayed, and searched 
in the Scriptures. Among the number of promises which I 
found in the Bible, that gave me to see it was my privilege 



244 REMARKABLE NARRATIVES. 

to be saved from all sin, my mind was particularly directed 
to Ezekiel xxxvi. 25-27. The more I examined the Scrip- 
tures, the more I was convinced that without holiness there 
could be no heaven. Many were the hard struggles which 
I had with unbelief; and Satan told me that if lever 
should get it, I should never be able to retain it. But 
keeping close to the Word of God, with earnest prayer and 
supplication, the Lord gave me to see that nothing short 
of holiness would do in a dying hour, and at the judgment. 
Seeing this, it was my constant cry to God that He would 
cleanse my heart from sin, and make me holy for the sake 
of Jesus Christ. 

"I well remember returning one night from a meeting 
with my mind greatly distressed for want of the blessing. 
I turned into a lonely barn to wrestle with God in secret 
prayer. While kneeling on the threshing-floor, agonizing 
for the great salvation, this promise was applied to my 
mind, 'Thou art all fair, my love; there is no spot in thee.' 
Bat, like poor Thomas, I was afraid to believe, lest I should 
deceive myself. Oh, what a dreadful enemy is unbelief ! I 
was a fortnight after this groaning for deliverance, and 
saying, 'O wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me 
from the body of this death ? ' I yielded to unbelief, 
instead of looking to Jesus, and believing on Him for the 
blessing ; not having then clearly discovered that the wit- 
ness of the Spirit is God's gift, not man's act, but open to 
all who exercise faith in Jesus, and the promise made 
through Him. At length, one evening, while engaged in 
a prayer-meeting, the great deliverance came. I began to 
exercise faith, by believing I shall have the blessing now. 
Just at that moment a heavenly influence filled the room, 
and no sooner had I uttered the words from my heart, I 



A SANCTIFIED CLASS-LEADER. 245 

shall have the blessing now, than refining fire went through 
my heaH — illuminated my soul — scattered its life through 
every part, and sanctified the whole. I then received the 
full witness of the Spirit, that the blood of Jesus had 
cleansed me from all sin. I cried out this is what I 
wanted ! I have now got a new heart ! I was emptied of 
self and sin and filled with God. I felt I was nothing and 
Christ was all in all." 

This was about nine months after his conversion. Un- 
hampered now by sin within, he begins a wonderful devel- 
opment of grace and divine knowledge. Endued with 
power from on high, he is ready for the battlefield, and 
soon the great commander has placed him at the front. 
As leader, he takes charge of a company of Zion's soldiers. 
For a while his faith is tried, for he declares that he went 
on for some years without seeing much good done. Then 
comes victory as, one after another, he leads his class to 
the same victorious summits that he, through Christ, had 
gained. 

Faithful in little, he was made leader of three classes. 
His humility deepens. His passion for souls becomes a 
living fire. He says, " With fear and trembling I opened 
my mouth to beseech them to fly from the wrath to come." 
At service, from cottage to cottage, in the workshop, and 
by the roadside, he captured souls. He snatched them 
from the very jaws of death. Stepping with a friend to 
the bedside of a blacksmith who was very ill, he said, 
" Well, my friend, we have come to inquire how you are." 
"lam very bad, sir," said the poor man. "How long 
have you been ill ? " " Nearly ten weeks." " Indeed ! but 
we have come to inquire more particularly how your mind 
is." " Very bad, sir." " Indeed ! what is the matter 
there i " " Oh, sir, I am such a great sinner." %l A great 



246 REMARKABLE NARRATIVES. 

sinner, are you ? " " Oh, yes, sir." " Well, what did Jesus 
die for f " " For sinners ; but T am — " " Stop, now ; 
answer my question. You say that Christ died to save 
sinners. Did He die to save you ? " " Yes, sir." " Well, 
sir, if He died to save you, should you not praise Him ? " 
"Yes, sir, but — " "Now, stay, my friend ; just answer 
my questions. You admit that Christ died for you ; then 
should you not praise Him'? " " Yes, sir." " Come, then, 
my brother, lift up your voice and praise Him. Glory be 
to God! glory be to God! Come, my brother, join with 
me to praise the Lord." Soon the sick man begins to 
utter words of praise, then looking away to his Redeemer, 
the Holy Spirit descends into his soul, and in the supreme 
joy of a soul redeemed on the brink of the grave, he shouts, 
" Glory ! glory ! Praise the Lord ! " 

Although laboring hard upon a farm to earn his daily 
bread, he prayed for time, planned for time, and found time 
to discharge his duty as leader for his classes. He wrestled 
with God for the salvation of his household. He prevails, 
exclaiming, " Glory ! glory ! glory ! The Lord will save 
all my family ! " They were all converted. He often 
sought, expected, and received special baptisms of the Holy 
Spirit. Under their influence, though speaking with great 
plainness and simplicity, " his words of fire seemed to 
fasten like cloven tongues to every heart, and often pierced 
like a two-edged sword." At times he was so burdened for 
the unsaved as to exclaim, "The weight of their awful 
state is so laid on my soul, that even my body is crushed 
with the load, and I can scarcely stand upright." Himself 
" dogged by temptation," yet victor over it, he could sym- 
pathize with others, and at the same time teach them to 
overcome. Of a member, lukewarm and remiss in duty, he 
says, " I can speak to him without much difficulty when I 



A SANCTIFIED CLASS-LEADER. 247 

come to him with my own soul melting under the in- 
fluence of heavenly love." 

It was thus that he labored. One of his members said to 
him, " The kind pressure and constraining love with which 
he used to induce me to go to the class-meeting, was little 
short of compulsion. I could not resist his importunity." 

At times his consciousness of the divine presence was 
such, that he declared that he was " so overpowered with 
the glory of God, that had there been a thousand suns 
shining at noonday, the brightness of the divine glory 
would have eclipsed them all." 

Now God calls him from work to reward. He is ready. 
He must go by the way of the fiery furnace of affliction, 
but he does not flinch. While tried in the furnace, he 
says, U I have been looking for my sins, but cannot find 
any of them ; they are all gone." The dross was consumed, 
but the gold the brighter shone. He pauses a little while 
on the margin of the spirit world. Here " his heart 
seemed to dance with rapture." While entering paradise 
he repeated the verse, " Praise God, from whom all bless- 
ings flow," and then began to sing it ; and thus singing 
praises, he passed into the world of spirits, there to shine 
forever, October 13, 1834. 

He is admired by the Church as one of the brightest stars 
that ever adorned her constellation of illustrious leaders. 
His success was not due to his culture, for he could not 
write until over sixty-five years of age ; nor high social 
position, for that was never his ; nor wealth, for he was 
poor. He triumphed through a resolute will, tireless 
energy, and sanctified common-sense ; and these all on fire 
by the Holy Ghost. 

It is supposed that his visits, prayers, and exhortation* 
were tlrj himiis of hundreds of conversions. 



248 REMARKABLE NARRATIVES. 



Incentives to Soul= Saving Work. 

First. — The command of our Lord. 

Second. — The reward for the service. 

Third. — The good that comes to those saved. 

Fourth. — The greater praise that comes to God. 

Fifth. — The blessing that comes to society. 

Sixth. — The joy in three worlds. 

Seventh. — The defeat of Satan. 

THE COMMAND. 

This is explicit and direct. Mark xvi. 15 ; John xv. 16 , 
2 Cor. v. 12-20 ; Ezekiel xxxiii. 8. 

Have we been saved if we deny the cup of salvation to 
others ? 

Can we be saved if we fail in this command 1 See that 
awful warning in Ezekiel xxxiii. 12. 

To neglect to give the patient the medicine and he die 
thereby, are we not responsible for his death 1 

Consider the result of a Levite who should refuse to tell 
the serpent-bitten Israelites that Moses had lifted the 
brazen serpent as a remedy and he that would look should 
live. Read John iii. 11, 15. 

Christ said, " If ye love me, keep my commandments." 
" If I be lifted up I will draw all men unto me." 

It's ours to lift Him up that the whole world may see 
Him. See John xvii. 20, 21. 

THE REWARD. 

James v. 20. Here is the promise of a double reward. 
Daniel xii. 3 gives the eternal reward. John xii. 26 has a 
depth of meaning in it which only heaven can reveal 



INCENTIVES TO SOUL-SAVING WORK. 249 

Think of meeting those you have led to Christ in 
heaven. Consider Hebrews xii. 2 — who " for the joy " — 
ours the same. 

There is a reward here, as well as hereafter. 

1. There is no joy like that of soul-saving. 

2. We grow mighty in grace thereby. 

3. We make friendships that are eternal. 

4. It brings gladness next to our own conversion. 

5. We gain the love and esteem of the Church. 

6. It helps to answer prayer. 

7. It sets all heaven singing for joy (Luke xv.). 

THE GOOD THAT COMES. 

A soul saved from hell. 

A wicked life changed to one of righteousness. 
The fires of a burning conscience put out and peace like 
a river put in. 

A soul set free from the service of Satan. 

Good influences let loose, bad influences changed. 

A soul reconciled to God. " Harmony once more." 

Hope restored, manhood regained, life found. 

Condemnation gone ; victory over death. 

Companionship of Jesus. 

The indwelling God and power of the Holy Ghost. 

Love the controlling motive, and not self or selfishness. 

THE GREATER PRAISE OF GOD. 

A soul saved will sing forever. 

" He will never hear the last of saving a sinner like 
me. 

Everlasting praise for everlasting salvation. 
One can set a multitude on fire. — John B. Gough. 



250 REMARKABLE NARRATIVES. 

God's love for the individual reveals man's power to 
praise. 

Said one sinner, " Every world shall hear of my con- 
version, and there is not an angel or an archangel whose 
hand I will not shake, and say, ' Glory to God, and sing 
Hallelujah.' " 

SOCIETY AND ITS BLFSSINGS. 

Hatred, malice and strife lessened, and love, joy and 
peace increased. 

There is no true Christianity without morality. 

Convert the race and prisons close, two-thirds of all 
asylums and hospitals will not be needed. 

One judge will do for every fifty we now have. 

War will be known only in memory, and every soldiei 
can beat his gun into a pruning hook and go to work. The 
cry of the poor will be stopped by mouthfuls of meat, and 
the destitute will sing for joy of plenty. 

"One policeman can watch a ward in New York or 
London, and sleep whenever he likes." 

JOY IN THREE WORLDS. 

Heaven will rejoice. God on the throne will be glad. 
Angels and archangels will shout the praise and wonder 
of Christ's salvation. The redeemed ones there will run 
the streets of gold, wild with delight that one has tasted of 
the good gift of eternal life. 

Earth will rejoice. Some mother will weep tears of joy 
over her boy, saved at last. Wife will have the glad 
knowledge that she and her husband will not part forever 
at the grave. Brother and sister will sing the same songs 
of salvation. Children will clasp their hands with merry 



A TEST OF UNIVERSALISM. 251 

glee over papa's conversion, and mother's being washed in 
the blood of the Lamb. 

Hell will rejoice. Yes, strange as it may seem, lost 
brothers, like the one in Luke xvi. 27-30, will be glad 
to know that others of the same household have escaped 
the torments of the wicked. This Scripture certainly 
teaches this. 

THE DEFEAT OF SATAN. 

The enemy of Christ foiled at last. 
Seeking whom he may devour he has lost his prey. 
Christ and the angels victorious. 
Satan and the devils defeated. 
The glory of triumph in battle. 

One more in heaven — one less in hell. — Selected from 
" Lessons for Christian Workers? by Chap. H. Yatman. 



A Test of Universalism. 

A Christian gentleman — one Colonel Richardson, was in a 
boat along with two Universalists, on the river some dis- 
tance above the falls of Niagara. The Universalists began 
to rally the colonel on his belief of future punishment, and 
expressed their astonishment that a man of his powers of 
mind should be so far misled as to believe the horrid 
dogma. The colonel defended his opinions, and the result 
was a controversy which was carried on so long and earn- 
estly that when they, after some time, looked round, they 
found that the boat was hurrying with great rapidity 
towards the falls ! The Universalists at once dropped the 



252 BEMARKABLE NARRATIVES. 

oars, and began to cry to God to have mercy on thenu 
Richardson laid hold of the oars, exerted all his strength, 
and by God's mercy, pulled ashore. When they landed, 
he addressed his companions : " Gentlemen, it is not long 
since you were railing at me for believing in future punish- 
ment. Your opinion is that when a man dies the first 
thing of which he is conscious is being in heaven ; now, I 
want to know why you were so terribly frightened when 
you thought that in five minutes more you would be over 
the falls and up in glory ? The Universalists were silent 
for some time \ but at length one of them, scratching his 
head, said : " I'll tell you what, Colonel Richardson, Uni- 
versalism does very well in smooth water, but it will never 
do to go over the falls of Niagara V — Sel. 



Correspondence between the Rumseller 
and the Devil. 

TO HIS SATANIC MAJESTY : 

Dear Sir, — I have opened apartments, fitted up with all 
the enticements of luxury, for the sale of rum, wine, gin, 
brandy, beer, and all their compounds. Our schemes, 
though different, can be best attained by united action. I 
therefore propose a co-partnership. All I want of men is 
their money — all the rest shall be yours. 

Bring me the industrious, the respectable, the sober, 
&nd I will return them to you drunkards, paupers, and 
beggars. 

Bring me the child, and I will dash to earth the dearest 
hepes of the father and mother. 



THE RUMSELLER AND THE DEVIL. 253 

Bring me the father and mother, and I will plant discord 
between them, and make them a curse and a reproach to 
their children. 

Bring me the young man, and I will ruin his character, 
destroy his health, shorten his life, and blot out the highest 
and purest hopes of youth. 

Bring me the young woman, and I will destroy her virtue 
and return her to you a blasted and withered thing — an 
instrument to lead others to destruction. 

Bring me the mechanic and the laborer, and their own 
money — the hard-earned fruit of toil — shall be made to 
plart poverty, vice, and ignorance in his once happy home. 

Bring me the professed follower of Christ, and I will 
blight and wither every devotional feeling in his heart, and 
send him forth to plant ±nfidelity and crime among men. 

Bring me the minister of the Gospel, and I will defile 
the purity of the Church and make the name of religion a 
stench in the land. 

Bring me the lawyer and the judge, and I will pervert 
justice, break up the integrity of our civil institutions, and 
the name of law shall become a hissing and a by-word in 
the streets. 

Awaiting your reply, 

I am, yours truly, 

A RUMSELLER. 



REPLY 



My Dear Brother, — I address you by this endearing 

appellation because of the congeniality of our spirits, and 
of the great work we are both engaged in. 

I most cordially accept your proposals. During 6,000 



254 REMARKABLE NARRATIVES. 

years I have vainly sought for a man to do this work — one 
so fully after my own heart as you are. I ransacked the 
lowest depths of hell for spirits who could do for me the 
whole work of destruction. But little success attended 
their efforts. 

I sent out the demon Murder, and he slew a few 
thousand, most generally the hopeless and the innocent. 
But his mission was a failure. 

I bade my servant Lust go forth. He led innocent 
youths and beautiful maidens in chains, destroying virtue, 
wrecking happiness, blasting character and causing un- 
timely deaths and dishonored graves. But even then, 
many of the victims escaped through the power of God, my 
enemy. 

I sent out Avarice, and in his golden chains some were 
bound, but men *oon learned to hate him for his meanness, 
and comparatively few fell by him. 

The twin brothers Pestilence and War went forth, and 
Famine followed behind them, but they slew indiscrimin- 
ately the old and the young, women and children, the good 
as well as the bad, and Heaven gained as many accessions 
as Hell. 

In sadness my Satanic heart mourned over the probable 
loss of my crown and kingdom, as I contemplated the 
tremendous strides which the Gospel of Christ was making 
in saving men from my clutches. But when I received 
your welcome letter I shouted till the welken of hell rang 
again, " Eureka ! Eureka ! I have found him ! I have 
found him ! " 

My dear friend, I could have embraced you a thousand 
times. I have given orders to reserve for you a place near- 
est my person — the most honorable seat in pandemonium. 



AN ISRAELITE INDEED 255 

In you are combined all the qualifications of just such a 
friend and partner as I have long wished for. In your 
business are all the elements of success. Now shall my 
throne be established forever. Only carry out your designs 
and you shall have money, though it be wrung from the 
broken hearts of helpless women, and from the mouths of 
innocent, perishing children. Though you fill the jails, 
workhouses and poorhouses — though you crowd the insane 
asylums — though you make murder, incest and arson to 
abound, and erect scaffolds and gallows in every village, 
town and city, you shall have money. 

I will also harden your heart so that your conscience 
will not trouble you. You shall think yourself a gentle- 
man, though men and women — your victims — shall call 
you a demon. You shall be void of the fear of God, the 
horrors of the grave, and the solemnities of eternity ; and 
when you come to me your works shall produce you a 
reward forever. 

Yours to the very last, 

LUCIFER. 



An Israelite Indeed ! 

After stating how he had for some time vainly sought 
for entire holiness by works instead of faith, and had, at 
last, specially to believe for it, Rev. Wm. Bramwell says : 
" The Lord, for whom I had waited, came suddenly to 
the temple of my heart ; and I had an immediate evidence 
that this was the blessing which I had for some time been 
seeking. My soul was then all wonder, love, and praise. It 
is now about twenty-six years ago. I have walked in this 



256 REMARKABLE NARRATIVES. 

liberty ever since. Glory be to God ! I have been kept by 
His power. By faith I stand. In this, as in all other 
instances, I have proved the devil to be a liar. He sug- 
gested to me, a few minutes after I had received the bless- 
ing, that I should not hold it long, it was too great to be 
retained, and that I had better not profess it. I then 
declared to the people what God had done for my soul ; and 
I have done so on every proper occasion since that time." 
He was appointed to the Kent circuit, 1785. The number 
of members on his charge was 322, but were increased to 
450 by the Conference of 1787. 

Like many of his brethren, he was often greatly depressed 
in spirit, and tempted to leave his work. On one occasion 
he unbosomed his mind to an old friend, who advised him 
to go to his closet, in retirement to take a review of his 
whole life, and if he could find a single mercy with which 
God had blessed him, to praise Him for it. Mr. Bramwell 
followed his advice, and while thus engaged, a successive 
train of divine mercies passed in review. He saw, indeed, 
that his whole life had been marked with mercy. Grati- 
tude overflowed his heart. He broke forth in praises to 
God, took encouragement, and went forward in the name 
of the Lord. 

During his zealous labors on the Dewsbury circuit, a 
most wonderful outpouring of the Spirit was realized, and 
nearly two hundred were added to the society, and many of 
the members were entirely sanctified. On the Birstal 
circuit his ministry was equally successful. His powerful 
preaching added to the societies during his two years' stay 
on this circuit. 

Mr. Bramwell was next appointed to Sheffield. Every- 
where he was received as an angel of God. The people 



AN ISRAELITE INDEED ! 257 

beheld his deadness to the world, his entire devotedness 
to God, the manner in which he entered into the work of 
saving souls from death and feeding the flock of Christ. 
He gave himself to fasting and prayer, and diligently 
sought renewed baptisms of the Holy Ghost, therefore he 
was " strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might. 5 ' 
In performing this work, Mr. Bramwell exercised much 
judgment and influence in employing the talents of local 
preachers, leaders and others in prayer -meetings, and they 
became important helpers to him in every place. Oppo- 
sition was broken down, lukewarmness disappeared, a 
holy union prevailed, and the work of God in the towns 
and country broke out into a flame of life and power. 
Fifteen hundred members were added to the society in the 
course of his three years' labors in the Sheffield circuit. 
His letters to intimate friends at this period manifest a 
spirit of very elevating piety and entire consecration to his 
great work. To Mr. Hargraves he wrote : "I see more 
than ever that those who are given up to God in con- 
tinual prayer are men of business, both for earth and 
heaven ; they go through the world with composure, are 
resigned to every cross, and make the greatest glory of the 
greatest cross. On the other hand, if not given up to God 
in prayer, every cross brings the greatest perplexity, and 
robs them of the little love and patience they enjoy." . 

Mr. Bram well's next field of toil was Nottingham. By 
an unhappy division on this circuit in 1797, which resulted 
in the organization of the Methodist New Connexion, three 
hundred persons left the society ; but this number was 
fully made up in one year. In the following year 
eight hundred more were added. Thus the society was 
doubled. The name of the Lord was magnified in the 
17 



258 REMARKABLE NARRATIVES. 

conversion of several Deists, who renounced their error, 
and found redemption in His blood. Several very striking 
cases of divine heal : ng also took place in answer to his 
believing prayers on this circuit. In prayer for the 
society at a watch-night service, his eyes sparkled like 
flames of fire, his whole frame was full of animation, and 
he took such hold of God that divine power fell on all 
present in a wonderful manner. Many of them were so 
affected that at the conclusion of the service they could 
not come down the gallery stairs without assistance. 

His labors on the Leeds, Wetherley and Hull circuits 
were also crowned with glorious success. On entering 
upon his work in the last-named place, he says : "I have 
had three weeks of agony, but now see the Lord working." 
Three weeks of agony ! Is it then any wonder that such 
pentecostal results followed his preaching ? The manner 
in which he walked with God and maintained deep com- 
munion with Him, is thus described by Mr. John Hebble- 
white : " During the time Mr. Bramwell was in the Hull 
circuit, I lived in a house on the Humber bank, nearly 
a mile out of town. A large parlor on the first floor 
commanded an extensive view of the Humber; no vessel 
could pass unseen from the windows. This room was his 
favorite place of retirement, and he was at all times 
welcome to it, for we felt ourselves honored by the use to 
which he appropriated it. He was wont to resort fre- 
quently to it, and spend two, three, four, five and some- 
times six hours in prayer and reflection. He often entered 
the room at nine o'clock in the morning, and did not leave 
it till three in the afternoon. The days on which his 
longest visits occurred were, I conjecture, his appointed 
fasts ; on these occasions he refused any kind of refresh- 



AN ISRAELITE INDEED ! 2")9 

ments, and used to say when he came in, * Now, take no 
notice of me.' One year's labor on the Sunderland circuit 
resulted in the accession of five hundred members to the 
society, and five hundred the following year. While here 
he was greatly buffeted by Satan, and sorely tried in 
various ways ; but he came off more than conqueror. 

" I never was so much struck with the Word of God as 
at present. The truth, the depth, the promises, quite 
swallow me up. I am lost in wonder and praise. My soul 
enters into Christ, in His blessed Book. His own sayings 
take faster hold of me than ever. I could read, and 
weep, and love, and suffer; yea, what could I not suffer 
when I thus see Him 1 J ustification is great, to be 
cleansed is great ; but what is justification, or the being 
cleansed, when compared to this being taken into himself ? 
The world, the noise of self, are all gone, and the mind 
bears the full stamp of God's image. Here you talk, and 
walk, and live, doing all in Him and to Him ; continually 
in prayer, and turning all into Christ, in every house, in 
3 very company — all things by Him and to Him." 

Again he writes : " Oh, this heaven of God's presence, 
this opening into glory, this weeping over a lost world, 
this being willing to lay down your life for the Church ! 
God is all. Oh, my soul, I feel its fire, its burning, as I 
write. God grant the flame may spread, the glory shine. 
May the world receive it. Places to me are less than ever. 
Devoted souls are my delight. To see my friends dwelling 
in God and God in them affords me one of the greatest 
earthly pleasures." 

On the Liverpool circuit, to which he was next sent, 
five hundred and fifty members were added to the society 
during his labors in that field, and many were the 



260 REMARKABLE NARRATIVES. 

remarkable deliverances wrought out for him and others 
in answer to his prayers. One of his first remarks to the 
society on entering upon his work in a new field was, 
" Slow singing, long prayers, long meetings, and late 
attendance on the ordinances were indubitable marks of a 
low state of grace. " 

His letters during the last six years of his heavenly life 
on earth breathe a hallowed spirit. They contain the 
language of a saint who lived continually in the suburbs of 
the New Jerusalem, anticipating the happiness of glorified 
spirits. He was a consistent witness of the doctrine of 
Christian perfection, and continually pressed this experi- 
ence upon others. 

" He was so crucified to the world and the world *to him, 
that all worldly concernments seemed as nothing to him. 
He was, indeed, a consistent witness for God in the world, 
showing to what a height of holiness Christians may attain 
on earth, when hearty sincerity, deep mortification, 
diligent watchfulness, love of divine communion, and a 
humble and active faith meet in the heart of any man." 

His countenance and speech were perpetually as before 
God, in the conscientious observance of all His precepts ; 
his heart full of love to Him ; his face awing the beholder 
with the majesty and shining, with the sweetness and 
beauty of holiness. To all appearance he spent every 
moment of his time in his beloved duty, and in zealously 
doing good : always ready for and enjoying spiritual com- 
munion with God in all His ordinances. He sweetly united 
the lowest humility and condescension with the most 
transcendent charity to all men, yet so as not to suffer sin 
in his brother to go unreproved. He maintained peace of 
conscience and assurance of eternal life inviolate for many 



AN ISRAELITE INDEED ! 261 

years together, and convinced all who knew him that the 
power of God dwelt in him. The Divine Spirit so beauti- 
fied and adorned him that both himself and others were 
assured that he was born of God. 

H?is deportment was always such as if at that moment he 
saw God and had God's law and the day of final account 
just then before him ; so that whenever the Lord should 
call him he might be found ready. To his intimate friends 
there appeared written in his face and demeanor a sense 
of the divine majesty and holiness ; a most pleasing, con- 
scientious, and full dedication of himself to God ; a watch- 
fulness upon his own heart and life, lest he should offend ; 
a spirit of great mortification to all the world ; a wonder- 
ful purity from all sinful pollution, and an admirable 
transformation into the divine similitude. Indeed, con- 
stant holiness seemed perfectly natural to him, while others 
seemed to be endeavoring to obtain it. 

A few years before his death he says : " I have for some 
time found myself taken up into God, and all things on 
earth drawn with me into himself. This is done by acts 
of faith. It is by this I see and embrace Him, and am 
taken up by Him. My life is hid with Christ in God. 
Sometimes I enter within the city, and live for some 
moments in blessed fellowship with the glorified. Oh, the 
hope of everlasting life ! Let everything be done every 
day with an eye to this." 

The late Rev. John Morris says : " On one occasion, 
having inquired into my experience, he said, ' Now we will 
pray a little.' We kneeled down together, and remained 
in that posture for nearly two hours. Oh, what power and 
comfort did I then feel ! The Lord drew near to us in all 
the strong attractions of His grace, and I was ready to 



262 REMARKABLE NARRATIVES. 

bhink myself in heaven I Mr. Bramwell frequently said 
' Lord, I am in heaven ! Lord, what art thou about to do 
with me 1 Oh, what numbers of angels are in this room ! 
Lord, I am just where I would be. I would not change my 
situation for the world. I am just in heaven.' These 
expressions he continually used. I spoke to him about 
being tempted. ' Tempted ! ' he exclaimed. * Oh, but we 
are safe. The devil may knock at the door, and temptation 
may peep in at the window, but neither can hurt us, for 
God is in us.' " 



End of a Backslider. 

The following case occurred in western New York, and 
was published in the Earnest Christian, September, 1864 # 
The facts were related to the editor of that magazine by a 
brother who was a personal witness of the awful scene, 
and whose statements can be implicitly relied upon : 

Mr. C. was powerfully convicted. He nearly sank in 
despair. His conversion was miraculous. The clearest 
light shone upon his soul, and he shouted and praised 
God in the fulness of his joy. For years he walked 
with God. He enjoyed the confidence of the Church, 
and was a useful member and class-leader. When 
the persecutions of those who enjoyed the life and 
power of godliness in the Genesee Conference com- 
menced, the most of his class were driven from the 
Church of their choice. He did not stand by them, but 
remained in the Church. He gradually lost his enjoy- 
ment. When he went among the pilgrims he confessed his 



AN ISRAELITE INDEED! 263 

loss, and promised to seek again the blessing he had once 
enjoyed. But the power of his associations was too 
strong, and he gradually settled down into a state of cold 
formality. He resolved and re-resolved to get back to the 
Lord, but the influences around him were unfavorable. 
Last spring he said to a brother there was not religion 
enough in the whole Church (including himself) to save one 
soul. He was urged to seek the Lord, but gave no satis- 
faction. He grew more cold, until he finally told a very 
excellent sister, whom the Lord had blessed, that getting 
blessed was all the work of the devil, and treated her in a 
very unchristian manner. On the 4th of July last friends 
called upon him, but found him despairing of his salvation. 
He said the light had become darkness. " My heart, 7 ' he 
exclaimed, " has become hard — very hard. I have no 
feeling. If I could but enjoy one Sabbath with a tender 
heart, as I did formerly, I would give all I have." The 
next day he said, " I am lost ! I am lost ! " He could 
neither eat nor sleep. He walked the floor, exclaiming 
every now and then. "I am tasting the pains of the 
second death." He called for water, saying, " I must have 
it to cool my tongue." He would wet his tongue every 
two or three minutes. It was red and swollen. ''I have," 
he said, " lived in the Church, and run down with it. Oh, 
the lip service ! the lip service ! There is no heart in it. 
What a sermon I could preach to the Church if I had the 
strength ! " With a piercing look and deep groans he 
said, " There are but few that will be saved : " frequently 
exclaiming as he walked the floor, " The lip service ! the 
lip service ! I am lost ! I am lost ! " " The time was, 
not long since, when, if I had had a little help, I might 
have been saved, but that time has passed." He said he 



264 REMARKABLE NARRATIVES. 

had warned his children, but they would mind none of his 
counsel. He begged the sister whom he had charged with 
being led of the devil, to ask a pious sister living near to 
warn his children when he was gone, not to go to the place 
of torment for which he was destined. " They call me 
.crazy," he said, "but my mind is clear. God is making a 
spectacle of me. God has given me over. The Spirit has 
taken His everlasting flight. The devil has control of me. 
It is all I can do to keep from committing the most horrid 
crimes." That night he got up from his bed and obtained 
poison. He stood over the table for half an hour, impelled 
to take it, but resisting with all his might. He then 
went to the barn to hang himself, but finding his son 
there, he gave up the design. His friends sent for the 
doctor. The doctor said he could not do anything for him, 
for he had no disease ; it was his mind that caused the 
trouble. A few days after, he was left in the parlor as his 
family went out to breakfast. He called them back a few 
at a time, and bade them all a last farewell. As they 
passed out he went to a bed, took out part of the cord, tied 
it to the top of the bed-post, made a noose, slipped his neck 
in it, and when they came into the room they found him 
dead. 

What an awful warning ! Beware how you depart from 
God in any degree. When you begin to wander from 
Him, you know not where it will end. There is safety 
only in following the Lord fully. Walk in the light. 



THE HARM OF NOVEL READING. 265 



The Harm of Novel Reading. 

In the city of E there were two brothers, each occu- 
pying a respectable sphere in society. The one in early 
life associated with companions whose habits were offen- 
sive to morality ; the other took an opposite course, and in 
due time was elected an elder of the kirk, which office he 
sustained and adorned by ruling well his own house, and 
by training up his children in the way they should go. 
His regard for their intellectual and religious welfare was 
visible not only in the regularity of domestic worship and 
the orderly arrangement of his household, but also in a 
large and well-selected library, from which works of fiction 
and doubtful moral tendency were carefully excluded. 
The profligate brother at length married, and had two 
children, a son and a daughter. The former displayed in 
early youth a genius for drawing so extraordinary as to 
give promise of his one day ranking among the first mas- 
ters of the art ; but his enthusiastic pursuit of his favorite 
study undermined a good constitution, and ere he reached 
his twentieth birthday consumption carried him to the 
grave. The mother, too, was early numbered among the 
dead ; and the daughter was left to the training of the 
bereaved father, who now possessed some regard for 
religion. But though he made an effort to follow the 
example of his brother the elder so far, at least, as to have 
family prayer once a week — on Lord's Day evening — such 
was still the inveteracy of his habit of profane swearing, 
that " out of the same mouth proceeded blessing and curs- 
ing." His ebullitions of temper were occasionally terrific 
to those who had the misfortune to be their witnesses or 



266 REMARKABLE NARRATIVES. 

victims. The strict Presbyterian notions and habits of his 
brother were frequently the theme of bitter or sarcastic 
remark ; and his select library of standard divines and 
historians was denounced in no measured terms, as calcu- 
lated to cramp the minds and prejudice the tempers of his 
children. For himself he was determined that no such 

restraint should be put upon his daughter K , who 

should be left at liberty to choose her own books, that she 
might see the good and the bad, and form her opinions in 
the most liberal manner, so as to escape bigotry and nar- 
row-mindedness. The freedom thus granted was eagerlv 
used As the daughter advanced to womanhood, she took 
her range among books of all kinds, and what was the 
result 1 The books which tended to restrain the wayward 
tendencies of human nature, were treated with flippant 
censure and thrown aside. Writers of fiction absorbed all 
her hours. Circulating libraries were ransacked, that she 
might find the most stimulating novels. 

The influence of this most trashy reading was soon 
apparent in her looks, temper, language and manners. 
Impatient of all restraint, she wandered in the paths of 
the tempter. The love-tales of her favorite authors 
inflamed her imagination. She dreamed and spoke of 
splendid matches, till she became quite unfitted for the 
matter-of-fact world in which her lot was cast ; as for 
domestic duties, they were too commonplace for so gay a 
young lady. These she would leave to home-spun Marthas 
whose genius was formed to superintend them. She pos- 
sessed no fortune, but was fully prepared to spend one, 
should it ever come into her possession. Her course 
downward was fearfully rapid, for soon a "gentleman" 
appeared as a suitor, promised marriage, abused her 



THE HARM OF NOVEL READING. 267 

credulity, kept her in suspense, and then abandoned her. 
She was forsaken of all her friends — misery stared her in 
the face. Golden dreams of sinful pleasure, the creation 
of novel reading, ended in disgrace, ruin, disease, a 
broken heart and an untimely grave ! She passed into 
eternity without hope, in what might have been the very 
bloom of her days, leaving behind her two unhappy infants 
to perpetuate her shame. The writer witnessed her career, 
too painful to be forgotten. Her miserable father was 
struck with palsy, lingered awhile and sunk into the 
tomb. His religious brother meanwhile held on his way, 
maintaining his integrity, his respectability and his domes- 
tic happiness. His children rose up to honor him. The 
want of acquaintance with fictitious writings did not 
prevent their becoming intelligent, useful and honorable 
members of society. 

In these days of cheap literature, let all who have any 
influence with the young beware how they encourage light 
or immoral reading. The press teems with fiction set 
forth in the most fascinating style, the tendency of which 
is to allure into forbidden paths. Ought we not to be as 
careful about the food of the mind, as we are about the 
food of the body ? In either case the food, however sweet, 
will destroy life. The difference is, that in one case the 
body is killed, in the other the soul ! — English Wesleyan 
Methodist. 



268 REMARKABLE NARRATIVES. 



A fliser's Death. 

They brought him a silver dollar. He took it, clutched it 
in his long, skkmy fingers, tried its sound against the bed- 
post, and then gazed on it long and patiently with his dull, 
leaden eyes. 

That day, in the hurry of business, death had struck 
him, even in the street. He was hurrying to collect the 
last month's rent, and he was on the verge of the miser- 
able court, where his tenants herded like beasts in their 
kennels ; he was there, with his rent^book in his hand, 
when Death laid his iron hand upon him. He was carried 
home to his splendid mansion. He was laid on a bed with 
a satin coverlet The lawyer, the relations and the preacher 
were sent for. All day long he lay without speech, moving 
his right hand, as though in the act of counting money. 
At midnight he spoke. He asked for a dollar, and they 
brought one to him, and lean and gaunt he sat up in his 
death-bed, and clutched it with the grip of death. 

A shaded lamp stood on a table near the silken bed. 
Its light fell faintly around the splendid room, where 
chairs and carpets and mirrors, silken bed and lofty ceiling 
all said " Gold ! w as plainly as human lips can say it. His 
hair and eyebrows were white ; his cheeks sunken, and 
his lips thin and surrounded by wrinkles, that indicated 
the passion of avarice. As he sat up in his bed, with his 
neck bared and the silken coverlet wrapped about his lean 
frame, his white hair and eyebrows contrasted with his 
wasted and wrinkled face, he looked like a ghost. And 
there was life in his leaden eye ; all that life centred on 
the dollar, which he gripped in his clenched fist. 



a miser's death. 269 

His wife, a pleasant-faced, matronly woman, was seated 
at the foot of his bed. His son, a young man of twenty- 
one, dressed in the latest fashion, sat by the lawyer. The 
lawyer sat before the table, pen in hand, and gold spec, 
tacles on his nose. There was a huge parchment spread 
before him. 

" Do you think he will make a will ? " asked the son. 

" Hardly compos-mentis yet," was the whispered reply. 
" Wait. He'll be lucid after a while." 

" My dear," said the wife, "had not I better send for a 
preacher ? " She arose and took her dying husband by the 
hand, but he did not mind. His eyes were upon the 
dollar. He was a rich man. He owned palaces on Walnut 
and Chestnut streets, and hovels and courts in the out- 
skirts. He had iron mines in this State ; copper mines on 
the lakes somewhere ; and he had golden interests in 
California. His name was bright upon the records of 
twenty banks ; he owned stocks of all kinds ; and he had 
half a dozen papers in his pay. He knew but one crime, 
to be in debt without the power to pay ; he knew but one 
virtue, to get money. That crime he had never forgiven, 
this virtue he had never forgotten, in the long way of 
thirty-five years. To hunt down a debtor, to distress a 
tenant, to turn a few additional thousands by a sharp 
speculation — these were the main achievements of his life. 
He was a good (?) man ; his name was upon a silver plate 
upon the pew-door of a velvet-cushioned church. He was 
a benevolent (?) man, for every thousand dollars he 
wrung from the tenants, from his courts, or from the 
debtors who writhed beneath his heel, he gave ten dollars 
to some benevolent institution ! He was a just (?) man ; 
the gallows and the jail, always found in him a faithful 



270 REMARKABLE NARRATIVES. 

and unswerving advocate. And now he is a dying man. 
See him, as he sits upon the bed of death, with the dollar in 
his clenched hand ! Oh, holy dollars, object of his life-long 
pursuit, what comfort hast thou for him now in his pain of 
death ? At length the dying man revived and dictated his 
will. It was strange to see the mother and son and law- 
yer muttering — and sometimes wrangling — beside the bed 
of death. All the while the testator clutched the dollar in 
his right hand. 

While the will was being made the preacher came — even 
he who held the pastoral charge of the church whose pew- 
doors bore saintly names on silver plates, and whose seats 
on Sabbath day groaned beneath the weight of respecta- 
bility, broadcloth and satin. He came and said his prayer, 
decorously and in measured words, but never once did the 
dying man release his hold on the dollar. 

" Can't you read me something, say, quick. Don't you 
see I'm going ? " at length said the rich man, turning a 
frightened look towards the preacher. The preacher, whose 
cravat was of the whitest, took a book with golden clasps 
from a marble table, and he read : "And I say unto you, 
it is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle, 
than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God." 

"Who said these words — who — who — who?" fairly 
shrieked the dying man, shaking the hand that clenched 
the dollar at the preacher's head. The preacher hastily 
turned over the leaf and did not reply. " Why did you 
never tell me of this before 1 Why did you never preach 
from it as I sat in your church ? Why — why ? " The 
preacher did not reply, but turned over another leaf. But 
the dying man would not be quieted. " And it is easier 
for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a 



A MISERS DEATH. 271 

rich man to enter the kingdom of God, is it ? Then what's 
to become of me ? Am I not rich ? What tenant did I 
ever pity 1 What debtor did I ever spare — what debtor 
did I ever release 1 And you stood up Sunday after Sun- 
day and preached to us, and never said one word about 
the camel. Not a word about the camel." 

The preacher in search of a consoling passage turned 
rapidly over the leaves, and in his confusion came to this 
passage, which he read : " Go to now, ye rich men, weep 
and howl for your miseries which shall come upon you. 
. Your gold and silver is cankered ; and the rust of 
them shall be a witness against you, and shall eat your 
flesh as it were fire. Ye have heaped treasure together 
for the last days. Behold the hire of the laborers who 
have reaped down your fields, which is of you kept back by 
fraud, crieth ; and the cries of them which have reaped are 
entered into the ears of the Lord of sabaoth." "And you 
never preached that to me," shrieked the dying man. The 
preacher, who had blundered through the passage from 
James, which we have quoted, knew not what to say. He 
was perchance terrified by the very look of the dying parish- 
ioner. Then the wife drew near and strove to comfort him, 
and the son (who had been reading the will) attempted a 
word or two of consolation. But with the dollar in his 
hand, he sank into death talking of stocks, of rent, of cop- 
per mines and camels, of tenant and debtor, until life left 
his lips. Thus he died. 

When he was cold the preacher rose and asked the 
lawyer whether the deceased had left anything to such 
and such charitable society, which had been engrafted 
upon the preacher's church ; and the wife closed his eyes, 
and tried to wrench the dollar from his hand, but in vain. 



272 REMARKABLE NARRATIVES. 

He clutched it as if it were the only saviour to light him 
through the darkness of eternity, and the son sat down 
with dry eyes, and thought of the hundreds of thousands 
which were now his own. 

Next day there was a hearse followed by a train of car- 
riages nearly a mile in length. There was a crowd around 
an open grave, and an eloquent sermon upon the virtues of 
the deceased by the preacher. There was a fluttering of 
crape badges, and rolling of carriages, but no tears. They 
left the dead man and returned to the palace, where sorrow 
died, even as the crape was taken from the door knob. 
And in the grave the dead hand still clutched the dollar. 
— George Lippaid in " Earnest Christian." 

" But they that will be rich fall into temptation and a 
snare, and into many foolish and hurtful lusts, which 
drown men in destruction and perdition." — 1 Tim. vi. 9. 



A riethodist Boanerges. 

Benjamin Abbott was one of the most memorable men of 
early Methodism. He lived in sin, and was a decidedly 
wicked man till he reached the age of manhood. 

Dr. A. Stevens gives the following in his history of 
Methodism, from which we gather this account : Mr. 
Abbott, in his early religious experience, met with a 
Methodist preacher who talked to him about Wesley's 
views of entire sanctification , and he resolved to seek this 
great blessing. He was in greater earnest than ever. He 
wrote: "Soon after Daniel Buff came upon our circuit, 
and my house being opened for a preaching-place, he came 



A METHODIST BOANERGES. 273 

and preached. In the morning, in family prayer, he prayed 
that God would sanctify us soul and body. I repeated 
those words after him : ' Come, Lord, and sanctify me, 
soul and body.' That moment the Spirit of God came 
upon me in such a manner that I fell flat on the floor. I 
had no power to lift either hand or foot, nor yet to speak 
one word. I believe I lay half an hour, and felt the power 
of God running through every part of my soul and body, 
like fire consuming the inward corruptions of fallen, 
depraved nature. When I arose and walked out of the 
door, and stood pondering these things in my mind, it 
appeared to me that the whole creation was praising God. 
It also appeared as if I received new eyes, for everything 
appeared new. I felt a love for all the creatures that God 
had made, and an uninterrupted peace filled my breast. 
In three days God gave me a full assurance that He had 
sanctified me, soul and body. ' If a man love me, he will 
keep my words, and my Father will love him, and we will 
come unto him, and make our abode with him.' (John xiv.~ 
25.) This I found day by day manifested to my soul, by' 
the witness of His Spirit. Glory to God for what He them 
did, and since has done for poor me ! " 

Devoting himself to the study of the Bible, he exhorted 
all men to repent. Texts and divisions were given him in 
his sleep, and he woke up preaching from them. His first 
sermon was over the coffin of one of his neighbors. His 
preaching was always with power. In his day few men 
in New Jersey were better known than Benjamin Abbott. 
He was both highly respected and generally beloved. 
There was an unction in his religion, and a simplicity in 
his life, a quietness in his courage, and a fatherly tender- 
ness in his manner. He was generally addressed as 
18 



274 REMARKABLE NARRATIVES. 

"Father Abbott." Many rejoiced to own him as their 
spiritual father. For years he travelled without a cent of 
compensation, except his entertainment among the people. 
By industry and frugality, he maintained his family by 
tilling a small farm. All his family were members of the 
Church, and shared his zeal. One of his sons went out as 
an itinerant. He begged money and timber to build a 
chapel in his neighborhood. He had the simplicity of a 
Quaker in his dress. Much of his success was by his pas- 
toral visits. He called on one family, and inquired if 
there was any preaching in that neighborhood. When he 
was told that there was none, he offered to preach in their 
house if the man would invite his neighbors in. He was 
told that the people did not want preaching. Then he sat 
down, and told the family his experience, and related what 
wicked men are before conversion. One of the daughters 
began to weep. The power of God fell on them while he 
prayed, and he left them all in tears. Of one place he 
wrote : " The Lord began to work in a powerful manner, 
and we soon had two classes ; then the devil roared hor- 
ribly, but God worked powerfully, and blessed the word, 
and sent it with power to many hearts ; many fell under it 
like dead men, being alarmed at their danger. Tne watch- 
meeting was crowded. One of the preachers preached, and 
then an exhortation was given. The Lord poured out His 
Spirit in such a manner that the slain lay all over the 
house ; and many others were prevented from falling by 
the crowd, which stood so closely that they supported one 
another. We continued till midnight, and some stayed 
all night." 

Sometimes a single sentence would strike and convict a 
tinner. Taking leave of a family, he gave his hand to a 



A METHODIST BOANERGES. 275 

military officer at the door, saying, " God out of Christ is 
a consuming fire. Farewell." Before midnight that officer 
was on the floor crying for mercy, and had no rest till he 
was converted. Gainsayers, persecutors, and mobs either 
yielded or were prostrated before this Boanerges. 

After laboring with great success as a local preacher, in 
1789 he joined the itinerancy, and became a regular Meth- 
odist travelling minister. Pie was appointed to Duchess 
circuit, New York, and reported one hundred new mem- 
bers the first year. The next year he travelled up and 
down the Hudson. In one of his meetings a dozen fell to 
the floor, and there was weeping and praising God. Some 
were justified and some were sanctified, and seemed to be 
lost in the ocean of redeeming love. 

All through his wonderful career, he kept up a distinc- 
tion between those who were justified, and those who were 
fully sanctified, showing plainly that he believed in entire 
sanctification. He preached it so that the people were 
convicted of their need of it, and sought and found it. H e 
labored to lead his people into the deep things of God. 
His favorite theme was entire sanctification. At a love- 
feast, after several had told their experiences, and a few 
had exhorted, he arose and exhorted them to seek sanctifica- 
tion, for now is the day of God's power ; and the power of 
the Lord fell on them in such a manner that they fell to 
the floor all through the house, upstairs and down. There 
was no more relating experiences, and the public preach- 
ing was dispensed with. The meeting lasted till sunset. 

11 He was thoroughly original, unique in mind and char- 
acter, had a simple, robust, but a holy soul, profound in the 
mysteries of spiritual life ; a temperament deeply mystic — 
a great dreamer, and his visions of the night, recorded 



276 REMARKABLE NARRATIVES. 

with unquestionable honesty, were often verified by the 
most astonishing coincidences. He was an evangelical 
Hercules, and wielded the Word as a rude irresistible 
club, rather than as a sword. His whole soul seemed to 
be pervaded by a certain magnetic power, that thrilled his 
discourses and radiated from his person, drawing, melting, 
and frequently prostrating the stoutest opposers in his con- 
gregation. It is probable that no Methodist laborer of his 
day reclaimed more men from abject vice. He seldom 
preached without visible results, and his prayers were 
overwhelming." 



The Leek=Seed Chapel. 

Soon after the promulgation of Methodism in England, it 
spread with great rapidity over the counties of Devon and 
Cornwall, and especially among the miners and lower 
orders. For a long period after its introduction the clergy 
and higher orders of society in the west of England mani- 
fested a degree of dislike to the new doctrines which can 
scarcely be imagined in these days of modern toleration. 
It was thought by many young gentlemen good sport to 
break the windows and nail up the doors of a Methodist 
chapel. The robbery of a Wesleyan preacher, as a spree, 
by two young gentlemen, became the subject of judicial 
investigation, and the frolicsome young men had to pay 
very dearly for their practical joke. 

Among the uninstructed local preachers was one known 
by the name of "The Old Gardener." This old man was 
no common character, indeed he was quite an original, and 



THE LEEK-SEED CHAPEL. 277 

by far the most popular preacher among the disciples of 
John Wesley in that vicinity. He kept a small nursery 
garden about two miles from the town of St. A , work- 
ing hard at his occupation as a gardener by day, and 
praying and preaching to his fellow-sinners, as he called 
them, in the evening. He lived in the poorest manner, 
giving away all the surplus of his earnings in charity, 
distributing Bibles, and prompting to the utmost of his 
ability the extension of Methodism. His complexion was 
a sort of dirty, dark iron-grey, and his whole appearance 
lean and grotesque. Although extremely ignorant, he 
possessed no small degree of cunning and great personal 
courage. Of this the following incident affords ample 
evidence : 

The "Old Gardener" was once subjected to a burglary 
and attempt at robbery. He lived with his wife, in a 
small and somewhat dilapidated cottage not far from the 
high road. Three young squires, who had just finished 
their studies at the university, and who all despised and 
hated Methodism, having heard that the old man had been 
recently making a collection to build a Methodisv chapel, 
thought it would be a good frolic to rob him temporarily 
of the proceeds of his collection. The result of the frolic 
is best related in the words of one of the actors : 

"We set out," said he, "upon our expedition with 
blackened faces, on a dark night, a little before twelve 
o'clock. We had dined late, and all of us had Dutch as 
well as Cornish courage ; yet I confess, when it came to 
the point, T felt myself a coward. I began to reflect that 
it was but a dastardly frolic to frighten a poor old man 
and his wife in the dead of the night. 



278 REMARKABLE NARRATIVES. 

"The clock struck twelve. 'Now comes the witching 
time of night,' exclaimed Tom. 

" ' Don't let us frighten the poor couple out of their 
wits,' said I. 

"'No,' said Ryder, 'we will be gentle robbers — gentle 
as Robin Hood and Little John.' 

" I said that I would rather travel back than proceed. 
'Recollect,' said I, 'the old fellow is an old soldier as well 
as a saint, and fears nothing human.' 

"'Nonsense,' exclaimed Ryder, 'here goes.' 

" He pressed the feeble door of the cottage in which the 
old man resided ; it immediately gave way and flew open. 
We entered, and found ourselves in a sort of kitchen. To 
our great surprise there was a light shining from an inner 
room. This made us hesitate. 

" 'Who is out there at this time of night V exclaimed a 
hoarse voice from within. I knew it to be the unmistak- 
able voice of the ' Old Gardener.' 

" ' Give us your money, and no harm shall befall you/ 
said Tom, ' but we must have your money.' 

" ' The Lord will be my defence,' rejoined the ' Old 
Gardener.' ' You shall have no money from me ; all in 
the house is the Lord's — take it if you dare ! ' 

" 'We must and will have it,' said we, as we entered the 
inner room, after taking the precaution of fastening the 
chamber door as we entered. 

" We soon wished we had suffered it to remain open, as 
you will see. 

" Now consider us, face to face with the ' Old Gardener ' ; 
and a pretty sight we presented. Three ruffians (ourselves) 
with white waggoners' frocks and blackened faces. Before 
us the ' Old Gardener,' sitting on the side of his bed. He 



THE LEEK-SEED CHAPEL. 279 

wore a red worsted nightcap, a check shirt, and a flannel 
jacket ; his iron-grey face, fringed with a grizzled beard, 
looking as cool and undismayed as if he had been in the 
pulpit preaching. A table was by the side of the bed, 
and immediately in front of him, on a large deal table, was 
an open Bible, close to which we observed, to our horror, a 
heap of gunpowder, large enough to blow up a castle. A 
candle was burning on the table, and the old fellow had a 
steel in one hand and a large flint in the other. We were 
all three completely paralyzed. The wild, iron-faced, deter- 
mined look of the ' Old Gardener,' the candle, the flint and 
steel, and the great heap of powder absolutely made 
cowards of us all. The gardener saw the impression he 
had made. 

" ' What ! do you want to rob and murder ! ' exclaimed 
he; 'you had better join with me in prayer, miserable 
sinners that you all are ! Repent, and you may be saved. 
You will soon be in another world ! ' 

" Ryder first recovered his speech. 

"' Please to hear me, Mr. Gardener. I feel that we 
have been wrong, and if we may depart we will make 
reparation, and give you all the money we have in our 
pockets.' 

" We laid our purses on the table before him. 

" ' The Lord has delivered you into my hands. It was 
so revealed to me in a dream. We shall all soon be in 
another world. Pray, let us pray.' And down he fell 
upon his knees, close to the table, with the candle burning, 
and the ugly flint and steel in his hand. He prayed and 
prayed. At last he appeared exhausted. He stopped, 
and eyed the purses ; and then emptied one of them out 
on the table. He appeared surprised, and, I thought 



280 REMARKABLE NARRATIVES. 

gratified, at the laryeness of its contents. We now thought 
we should, have to retire ; but to our dismay the ' Old 
Gardener ' said : 

" ' Now we will praise God by singing the Hundredth 
Psalm.' 

" This was agony to us all. After the psalm the old 
man took up the second purse ; and while he was examin- 
ing its contents, Ryder, who was close behind Tom and 
myself, whispered softly : 

" ' I have unfastened the door \ when you hear me move 
make a rush. 5 

"The 'Old Gardener' then pouring out the contents of 
the second purse exclaimed : 

" ' Why ! there is almost enough to build our new house 
of God ! Let me see what the third contains/ 

" He took up the third purse. 

" ' Now ! ' whispered Ryder, ' make a rush.' 

"We did so, and at the same moment heard the old 
fellow hammering away at his flint and steel. We expected 
to be instantly blown into fragments. The front door, 
however, flew open before us ; the next step we found our- 
selves in the garden. The night was pitchy dark. We 
rushed blindly through the nursery ground, scrambled 
through brambles and prickly shrubs, ran our heads against 
trees, then forced ourselves through a thick hedge. At 
last, with scratched faces, torn hands, and tattered clothes, 
we tumbled over a bank into the high road. 

" Our horses were soon found, and we galloped to 
Ryder's residence. Lights were procured, and we sat 
down. We were black, ragged, and dirty. We looked at 
each other, and, in spite of our miserable adventure, roared 
with laughter. 



THE LEEK-SEED CHAPEL. 281 

"'We may laugh,' exclaimed Tom, 'but if this adven- 
ture is blown, and we are found out, Cornwall will be too 
hot for us for the next seven years. We have made a 
pretty night of it. We have lost our money ; been obliged 
to pretend to pray for two long hours before a great heap 
of gunpowder ; while that iron-faced, ugly, red-capped 
brute threatened us all with an immediate passage into 
eternity ! And our money, forsooth, must go to build a 
Methodist meeting-house ! Bah ! It is truly horrible. 
The fellow has played the old soldier on us with a ven- 
geance, and we shall be the laughing-stock of the whole 
community.' 

"The affair was not yet ended. Reports were spread 
that three men, disguised as black demons, with horns and 
tails, had entered the cottage of the ' OM Gardener,' who 
had not only terrified them, but had frightened them out 
of a good sum of money, which he intended to devote to 
the building of a new Methodist meeting-house. It was 

O CD 

given out that on the following Sunday the ' Old Gardener ' 
intended to preach a sermon, and afterwards solicit sub- 
scriptions for the meeting-house, when he would relate the 
remarkable manner in which he had been providentially 
assisted with funds for the building. Our mortification 
was complete. Tom, whose hatred of Methodism was 
intense, declared he would blow up the meeting-house as 
soon as it was built. Our curiosity, however, was excited, 
and we all three determined to hear our a 1 venture of the 
night related by the 'Old Gardener,' if we could contrive 
to be present without being suspected. Sunday evening 
arrived. The meeting-house was crammed to suffocation, 
and with the dim lights then burning in the chape] we had 
no difficulty in concealing ourselves. The sermon was 



282 REMARKABLE NARRATIVES. 

short, but the statement of our adventures was related 
most minutely and circumstantially in the old man's quaint, 
homely, and humorous phraseology. This evening he 
seemed to excel himself, and was exultingly humorous. 
The old fellow's face glowed with delight and satisfaction. 
' I never,' said he, ' saw black faces pray with greater 
devotion. I have some doubt, however,' he slyly observed, 
' if their prayers were quite heavenward. They sometimes 
turned their faces towards the door, but a lifting of the 
flint and steel kept them quiet.' 

"He then added, with a knowing shake of the head and 
an exulting laugh, 'but they had not smelt powder like 
the old soldier whom they came to rob. No, no, it was a 
large heap — aye, large enough to frighten old General Clive 
himself. The candle was lighted, the flint and steel were 
ready. You may ask, my friends, if I myself was not 
afraid. No, no, my dear friends,' shouted he, 'this large 
heap of apparent gunpowder was — it was my stock, my 
whole year's stock of leek [onion] seed ! ' 

" The whole congregation somewhat irreverently laughed ; 
even the saints almost shouted ; many clapped their hands. 
I was for the moment stupefied by the announcement, but 
at last could hardly suppress my own laughter. 

" We subscribed to the fund to avoid suspicion, and left 
the meeting. After the sermon we joined each other, but 
could not speak. We could barely chuckle, 'leek seed,' 
and then roared with laughter. 

" It was a good joke, though not exactly to our taste. 
It has, however, more than once served for subsequent 
amusement. 

" The chapel was built with the money collected by the 
gardener." — Sel. j 

i 



PUNCTUALITY. 283 



Punctuality, 

Why is it that so many Christians arrive at the means of 
grace too late for the commencement ? It is most painful 
to see them dropping into a meeting five, ten, fifteen, or 
twenty minutes late. A great deal of this is brought about 
by the forgetfulness of those concerned. Their conduct 
results in two things. They distract and grieve those who 
are in their places ; and they grieve the Lord, which is far 
worse. It is most unhappy when the devil is able to use 
the late arrival of a child of God to draw away the atten- 
tion of those gathered from the object of their worship, and 
rob ; that blessed One of the praises which are His due. 
The interruption mars the communion existing between the 
Head and His members present, and affects the holy joy 
of the whole gathering. They also rob themselves. The 
Lord left a promise which has never been cancelled, and 
never once broken : " Where two or three are gathered 
together in my name, there am I in the midst;" "And 
when the hour was come, he sat down, and the twelve 
apostles with him." Do we remember this as we should % 
Do we think of it as we prepare for the meetings — as we 
journey to them — as we take our seats — as we sing — as we 
pray? One great cause of unpunctuality is, Christians 
lose sight of the fact that they are going to meet Jesus 
himself. Surely no one, knowing and realizing this fact, 
would keep Him waiting. Beloved, the Lord always keeps 
His appointments. Is it not a fact that a half-hour earlier 
rising on the Lord's Day, or a little brisker movement in 
household affairs, would so alter matters that we should 
see everyone in their places at the appointed time ? — Sel 



284 REMARKABLE NARRATIVES. 

When eight Quaker ladies had an appointment and 
seven were punctual, and the eighth, being a quarter of an 
hour too late, began apologizing for keeping the others 
waiting, the reply from one of them was : "I am sorry, 
friend, that thee should have wasted thine own quarter of 
an hour, but thee had no right to waste one hour and 
three-quarters more of our time, which was not thine own." 
And of Washington it is said that when his secretary, on 
some important occasion, was late, and excused himself by 
saying his watch was too slow, the reply was, " You will 
have bo get another watch or I another secretary." Napo- 
leon used to say to his marshals, " You may ask anything 
of me but time." Of John Quincv Adams it is said, that 
in his long service in Congress he was never known to be 
late. One day when the clock struck, and a member said 
to the Speaker, " It is time to call the House to order," the 
reply was, " No, Mr. Adams is not in his seat yet." And 
while they were yet speaking, Mr. Adams came in, he 
being punctual, while the clock was three minutes fast. — 
Cynosure. 



A Short Story. 

The official board is in session. A very animated discus- 
sion is going on over the withdrawal of twenty-seven of the 
members of the Church. Dr. Williamson, the eloquent 
pastor, is speaking : " I admit that in point of numbers 
twenty-seven out of over eight hundred would make but 
very little difference, but see who the twenty-seven are, 
the very ones who carry on our prayer-meetings and 
attend to the spiritual affairs of the Church. It is true 



A SHORT STORY. 285 

that they are not the wealthy part of our Church, but 
a church cannot be run with money alone." 

" Bro. Williamson,''* spoke up the Hon. Charles Smith, a 
member of the Legislature, "I say let them go ; we will 
get along much better without them. They have grown 
crazy over the prohibition party, and right here in our 
prayer-meeting some of them have grown so bold as to 
declare that any man who did not vote their ticket was 
supporting the liquor traffic. Now I claim to be as good 
a prohibitionist as any man in the prohibition party, and, 
indeed, a better prohibitionist, for the reason that I had 
the honor of voting for the enactment of our present high 
license law, which has done more for temperance than the 
prohibition party will ever accomplish." 

" Of course," said Dr. Williamson, " we will have to 
give them their letters, for we can find no fault with their 
Christian character. But we have none to take their 
places in the public prayer service. This is one of the evils 
of bringing politics into religion; they won't mix." (Will 
the doctor just reverse the theory and bring religion into 
politics, and you will see them mix so nobly that they will 
bring back the praying spirit, and then vote as you pray, 
and then you will see they will mix.) Then, says Dr. 
Williamson : " The grand old Republican party is a good 
enough temperance party for me, and while it is not up to 
the standard on the temperance question that I would 
like to see it, yet I am not going to throw away my vote 
on a party that has not a ghost of a chance of electing its 
candidates." (Applause.) "I don't understand what 
these fanatical prohibitionists want," said the Hon. Mr. 
Smith. "Our Church, as a Church, has declared that the 
liquor traffic cannot be legalized without sin." " That is 



286 REMARKABLE NARRATIVES. 

true, Mr. Smith, and nothing stronger than that could be 
uttered. The man who sells liquor for a living is worse 
than a " 

Just then there was a sharp knock on the door. " Come 
in," responded the double bass voice of Dr. Williamson. 
The door opened and the portly form of the saloon-keeper 
across the street appeared in the doorway. He was the 
first to break the oppressive silence : 

" Gentlemen, knowing this to be your regular meeting 
night I decided to come over and inform you that I and 
my family have made up our minds to join your Church 
and help along the good work you are doing." This 
speech was greeted with dumb astonishment by the mem- 
bers of the board. 

Dr. Williamson was the first to speak : " Have you 
given up the saloon business ? " 

" No, sir," replied the saloon-keeper. 

" Are you going to 1 " 

"No, sir. I am conducting a respectable place and see 
no reason why I should." 

" W-e-e-11," slowly replied the doctor, "our church rules 
prohibit us from taking in dealers in liquors, and for that 
reason we must refuse you." 

"Oh," said the saloon-keeper, a flush of anger coming 
into his already florid face, " I was not aware of that. On 
what grounds does your Church refuse to admit saloon- 
keepers ? " 

" On the ground that they are engaged in a business 
that sends souls to hell," replied Dr. Williamson. "The 
Bible says that no drunkard shall inherit the kingdom of 
God, and therefore no drunkard-maker can. More than 



A SHORT STOKY. 287 

that, our board of bishops has declared that the liquor 
traffic cannot be legalized without sin." 

The saloon-keeper was thoroughly aroused by this time, 
and in a suppressed angry tone he asked : " Do you know 
that a great many of your members are regular customers 
of mine 1 " 

" I have heard that some were," said Dr. Williamson. 

" Do you know that two of this official board now in this 
room are among my regular customers ? " 

No reply; but two very red faces showed who had been 
hit. 

" Do you know that I got my license from Judge Grant, 
who sits right here, for which I paid the regular license 
feet" 

"Hold on," said Judge Grant. "You are going too 
fast, my friend ; I do not make the laws, and I am com- 
pelled by the license law to grant licenses; therefore I am 
not responsible." 

" Well, the law was enacted by Mr. Smith there, and 
other Republicans." 

"You can't place the responsibility on me," said Mr. 
Smith. " I carried out the wishes of those who elected 
me. Had I been elected on a Prohibition platform I 
would have voted for a prohibitory law. My party stands 
for high license, and I voted for the law." 

" I understand that fully," said the saloon-keeper, "but 
I voted for you ; so did Judge Grant ; so did Dr. William- 
son ; the rest of this board and the great majority of voters 
in your Church. I took it for granted that all who voted 
for you believe in license. Now I am politely told that I 
cannot join this heaven-bound band and that I shall go to 
hell. Dr. Williamson here voted for you, Smith, to pass a 



288 REMARKABLE NARRATIVES. 

license law which compels Judge Grant to give me- a license 
to go to hell ! I am the fourth party to the agreement, 
and without the consent of you three I could not engage 
in the whiskey business. You three are bound for heaven, 
where you will wear crowns and play on golden harps, 
while I am to suffer the torments of the damned ! Gentle- 
men, if your Bible is true, and I go to hell for selling; 
whiskey, you will go with me to hell for voting to give me 
the legal right of doing so. Good night." 

With that he vanished, closing the door behind him with 
a vigorous slam. The members of the official board looked 
steadfastly on the floor, each one seemingly afraid of break- 
ing the silence. Each one was doing some pretty serious 
thinking when Dr. Williamson ended the silence by saying 
slowly : " Brethren, that saloon-keeper told us some terrible 
truths. Our hands are not clean, nor our skirts unspotted. 
Let us go home and pray for light. " — Selected by Rev. G. W. 
Scudder. 

Reader : One thing is certain : by your vote and influ- 
ence you are supporting one of the parties described in the 
above narrative. Which of them is it? You have pro- 
bably heard of the old story about the " House which 
Jack Built." We here present it to you in a revised form : 

This is a soul in hell. 

This is the rum that sent the soul to hell. 

This is the man that sold the rum that sent the soul 
to hell. 

These are old party voters that licensed the man to 
sell the rum that sent the soul to hell. 

Query : How shall these be separated on the last day ? 



GIANTS, NOT DWARFS. 289 



Giants, not Dwarfs. 

The need of the Church is Giants — men who have sucked 
the spiritual honey from the " lion's carcass" and who, in 
the strength of its luscious and divine sweetness, can take 
up the ass's " jaw-bone" and smite the enemies of the 
Cross until they lie as thick as the bleached bones in 
Ezekiel's vision. Giants of spiritual and heavenly stature, 
who are head and shoulders above their fellows, whose 
tread makes the earth tremble, whose eye is a piercing 
glare, whose voice wakes the very dead, and makes the 
living tremble and turn pale. Giants of mind, of intellect, 
of soul, who can climb the highest altitudes, hurl aside the 
mountains and leap the deepest and widest chasms, who 
can bridge over the gulfs, and make a highway for God 
and souls over the most rocky and rugged desert. Giants, 
who in conflict never grow weary, sheath their sword, 
beat a retreat, or strike their colors ; but who will conquer 
or die, who will never be discouraged or defeated. The 
world and the Church are sick of Dwarfs — men of puny 
and infantine stature, men who were born babies, have 
lived babies, and who without a divine miracle, will die 
babies ; and if God permits them, will rock the cradle and 
sing the lullaby of thousands of spiritual cripples besides 
themselves. 

The Church is sick of men of gloved hands, ringed 
fingers, feminine voices, bland smiles, and rag and paper 
sermons. We want men, not babies — Giants not Dwarfs ; 
men of iron grip, who can shake sinners with archangel 
strength, and roll the thunders of the law in their ears till 
Sinai smokes like a blazing furnace, and who can hurl the 
19 



290 REMARKABLE NARRATIVES. 

anathemas of heaven at them till they howl like demons 
and tremble like a city shaken by an earthquake. Men 
who can arou ;e and wake the Church, reclaim backsliders, 
frighten sinners, terrify the world, stir the devil, shake 
hell, and move angels, seraphs, and all the glory world. 
Men of Holy Ghost metal, of spiritual robust health, of 
cast-iron constitutions, steel sinews, and undaunted, un- 
dying, and mountain-moving faith. Men who laugh at 
impossibilities and overcome all difficulties. 

It is not so much learning that is wanted, but wisdom 
to make a right use of the learning we have. We don't 
condemn learning — would to God that all of us possessed a 
million times more of it than we do ; but we want to put 
our learning to soul-saving purposes, to harness it with 
power, with living flashes of Holy Ghost energy. The 
Church is loaded down to the very gates of damnation 
with learning ; the very flames as they shoot out their red- 
hot fiery tongues are laden with the perfume and incense 
of the schools ; and the groans of the lost, the shrieks of 
the unsaved, and the wailing of the damned mingle with 
the rhetoric, the oratory, and the eloquence of our fashion- 
able and fastidious preachers ; from under their very 
pulpits, souls are worse than damned, and the incense of 
their learning perfumes the very blood of which their soul 
is the sacrifice. 

It is not learning but power — real apostolic strength, 
spiritual might, and Holy Ghost energy. Not the skill to 
dress up thoughts in gauze, and tinsel, and sparkling 
finery, but a giant's strength to make thoughts, to clothe 
them in flame and fill them with lightning ; to make of 
them spiritual galvanic batteries, and charge them so 
effectually with holy and divine electricity that every 



WHAT INDIVIDUAL EFFORT WILL DO. 291 

snock shall loosen the joints of iniquity, snap the cords of 
wickedness and make the very bones of sin rattle and 
quiver. We want Giants who are not only able to carry 
the gates of Gaza, but who can lift on their Herculean 
shoulders the whole city. Men who have thoughts and 
words of their own, and who know how and when to 
use them, and who stand undaunted where pedants cry 
"fanatic." Men who dare call things by their right names, 
who are not afraid to call sin sin, and hell hell, and 
damnation hell in earnest. — Rev. J. M. G. Smith, in 
"Earnest Christian" 1870. 



What Individual Effort Will Do. 

Harlan Page was born in Coventry, Connecticut, U.S., 
July 28th, 1791. At twenty-three years of age, he and 
his wife publicly professed their faith in Christ, and joined 
the visible Church. 

As soon as he was converted he began to interest him- 
self in the salvation of souls. One of his favorite methods 
of work was writing letters to different individuals about 
their eternal welfare. It would be difficult to compute the 
number of pointed, earnest, yes, powerful appeals which he 
sent all over the land through the mails. In Sabbath 
School work he took a very prominent part, and labored 
assiduously for the conversion of his pupils. Of his success 
in this direction, a Christian friend says : " A number of 
ladies, who, when in youth, attended his school, still feel 
under great obligations to him and to God for his faithful 



292 REMARKABLE NARRATIVES. 

and untiring efforts for their salvation, and attribute their 
conversion under God to his instrumentality." 

His biographer says that "during his stay in Jewett 
city, he worked fifty-seven days, at seventy-five cents a 
day. Here was a mechanic performing his daily task on 
time ; establishing and sustaining a religious meeting at 
the boarding house, on Wednesday evenings ; a meeting of 
the people of God for prayer, on Sabbath mornings, at 
sunrise ; and, though he went about three miles to attend 
public worship, throwing his efforts into a Sabbath School 
at 5 p.m., and instructing a class ; devoting Sabbath 
evenings to meetings and family visitation ; conversing 
with the sick, the careless, the anxious, and those indulging 
a hope ; distributing tracts ; endeavoring to awaken an 
interest in the benevolent operations of the day ; keeping 
a brief diary ; abounding in prayer ; and adopting methods 
for the foundation of a church and the settlement of an 
evangelical pastor." 

The friend with whom he lodged there says : " Religion 
was always first in his mind. If he entered a family, after 
his usual salutation this subject was immediately introduced. 
In promoting the Sabbath Schools, he went out into the 
highways ; and wherever he found those of suitable age — 
however far from God they might seem — he would gain 
their attention, and, if possible, bring them in. Six or 
eight wild boys, from twelve to fourteen years of age, were 
thus induced to attend, were led to see their ruin by sin, 
and brought hopefully to Christ." In the providence of 
God, Mr. Page was, in October, 1825, appointed as Deposi- 
tor of the American Tract Society — a position for which 
he was eminently fitted. It is said that "one consideration 
that satisfied his mind of the propriety of changing his 



WHAT INDIVIDUAL EFFORT WILL DO. 293 

sphere of effort was, that he could think of no young per- 
sons, within the bounds of his congregation, whom he had 
not seriously addressed, either personally or by letter, on 
the subject of their salvation. Many of them had already 
united with the Church." 

He at once set to work to bring all the employees of the 
Tract Society under the influence of grace. In this he was 
eminently successful. God crowned his labors with glori- 
ous results. In one of the most wonderful revivals that 
was ever experienced in the city of New York — a revival 
which resulted in an accession to the evangelical churches 
of about two thousand souls — this indefatigable worker 
labored with all his mi^ht to win souls for Christ. His 
labors and his incessant prayers contributed greatly to 
the accomplishment of this glorious result. 

To persuade the young to abandon swearing, Sabbath- 
breaking, drinking intoxicants, and using tobacco, but more 
especially to get them soundly converted, was his constant 
aim and work. In speaking of his labors, while in con- 
nection with the Brainerd Church, the minister, who was 
then his pastor, says : " His influence, while the Lord 
continued him with us, was excellent. He was always 
engaged — always spiritual. His zeal seemed to suffer no 
declension ; it savored of the closet, of self-communion with 
heaven. He had a wonderful tact in conducting our 
prayer-meetings and making them interesting ; always 
diversified, and yet always solemn. His remarks, though 
simple, were never commonplace. The point and spirit of 
them appeared to have been premeditated, and they were 
generally well adapted to the character and condition of 
those present. He had also a happy talent for addressing 
strangers on the subject of personal religion; and after 



294 REMARKABLE NARRATIVES. 

our meetings, he would almost always single out some 
individual, and engage in close personal conversation. 
Several persons were in this way brought under conviction 
of sin, and some will have reason to bless God through 
eternity for his persevering faithfulness. 

" When engaged in his usual business, the religious 
welfare of persons with whose state he had become ac- 
quainted, was generally pressing on his mind. It is now 
known that, for several years before he died, he usually 
had by him a memorandum of the names and addresses of 
a few individuals with whom he was to converse. On 
these he would call as he went to and from his office or 
religious meetings. If no names were on his list, he felt 
that he was doing little good. He also uniformly had in 
his hat some awakening tracts, that he might present as he 
should judge them adapted to the state of those whom he 
met. Kot unfrequently he would seize a few moments 
from his usual occupation to go out and address some indi- 
vidual. When the business of the day was closed, he 
hastened to some meeting or other religious engagement 
for the evening. Every evidence of good accomplished 
gave him new joy, and every opening for usefulness added 
a new impulse to his efforts. He felt that, under God, the 
eternal joy or woe of immortal souls depended on his 
fidelity. 

" It was not the great object of his spiritual life himself 
to be happy in religion, but rather by persevering labors 
and holy self-denial — like the apostle who testified that he 
died daily — to glorify God in winning souls to Him. He 
ardently desired to devote the whole undivided efforts of 
his life to this work, and nothing but the duty of provid- 
ing for the support of his family prevented it. 



WHAT INDIVIDUAL EFFORT WILL DO. 295 

" He brought his efforts to bear upon individuals, and 
f jllowed up impressions made. All the triumphs of the 
Gospel, he knew, consist in the conversion and sanctification 
of individuals ; and he was not satisfied with merely pray- 
ing and contributing for the salvation of the world as a 
whole, or having a general impression made on the minds 
of a congregation. His intense desire was that individuals 
should be turned from sin to God. Not unfrequently he 
would observe in the congregation a person unknown to 
him, who seemed to give solemn attention to divine truth \ 
ascertain who he was, and seek a personal interview ; and, 
in all cases, if he left an individual to-dav in an interesting 
state of mind, he would endeavor to see him again to-mor- 
row, and follow up the impression ?,t brief intervals, till 
there was no longer encouragement, or he had evidence of 
true conversion." 

His biographer says : "There is no doubt that it was by 
continual and fervent prayer that he imbibed that glowing 
sense of eternal things, that love to souls, and that heavenly 
unction, which were at once the spring of his fidelity, and, 
under God, the ground of his success. 

" He was uniform and unwearied. I know not who has 
made or heard the charge of inconsistency in his Christian 
character. 

" Is it wonderful that God should have blessed his 
efforts? — that, in each Church with which he stood con- 
nected, individuals, when relating their religious experience, 
should be heard referring to his faithful endeavors as the 
means of bringing them to Christ ? — that a revenue of souls 
should have been gathered from the place of his nativity : 
thirty-two teachers be brought publicly to confess Christ 
from one of his Sabbath Schools, nine of whom have set 



296 REMARKABLE NARRATIVES. 

their faces toward the ministry 1 — that thirty-four souls 
should have been gathered by him and his fellow-laborers 
from one ward of the city ; and fifty-eight, in connection 
with his efforts and those of a few endeared associates, 
have been brought to join themselves to the people of God, 
from the Tract and Bible houses ? — that individuals should 
come to his dying bed, and thank him, with tears, for his 
fidelity to their own souls'? Is it wonderful that, in 
speaking of his early departure, to her who is now his 
widow, and looking back on his work on earth as ended, he 
should, with the solemnity of eternity on his countenance, 
say, ' I know it is all of grace, and nothing that I have 
done ; but I think I have had evidence that more than one 
hundred souls have been converted to God through my own 
direct and personal instrumentality ' ? " 

As he drew near death, he exclaimed : "Oh, for a holy 
ministry, devoted to the salvation of souls ! I cannot bear 
to have so much time wasted in controversy. If all would 
devote themselves to the salvation of souls, how many 
might be saved from eternal burnings ! " Of him it might 
truly be said that "he ceased not to warn everyone night 
and day with tears." He died in great peace and triumph, 
September 23rd, 1834. 



THE GREAT DESTROYER. 297 



The Great Destroyer. 

"Prisoner at the bar, have you anything to say why 
sentence of death should not be passed upon you ? " 

A solemn hush fell over the crowded court-room, and 
every person waited in almost breathless expectation for 
an answer to the judge's question. 

Will the prisoner answer ? Is there nothing that will 
jaake him show some sign of emotion ? Will he maintain 
the cold, indifferent attitude he has shown through the long 
trial, even to the place of execution 1 Such were the 
questions that passed through the minds of those who had 
followed the case from day to day. 

The judge still waited in dignified silence. Not a whis- 
per was heard anywhere, and the situation had become 
painfully oppressive, when the prisoner was seen to move. 
His head was raised, his hands were clinched, and the 
blood had rushed into his pale, care-worn face, his teeth 
were firmly set, and into his haggard eyes came a flash of 
light. Suddenly he arose to his feet, and in a low, firm, 
but distinct voice said : 

" I have. Your honor, you have asked me a question, 
and I now ask, as the last favor on earth, that you will not 
interrupt my answer until I am through. 

" I stand here before this bar convicted of the wilful 
murder of my wife. Truthful witnesses have testified to 
the fact that I was a loafer, a drunkard, and a wretch ; 
that I returned from one of my long debauches and fired 
the fatal shot that killed the wife I had sworn to love, 
cherish and protect. While I have no remembrance of 
committing the fearful, cowardly and inhuman deed, I 



298 REMARKABLE NARRATIVES. 

have no right to complain or condemn the verdict of 
twelve good men who have acted as jurors in this case, for 
their verdict is in accordance with the evidence. 

" But, may it please the court, I wish to show the court 
that I am not alone responsible for the murder of my 
wife ! " 

This startling statement created a tremendous sensation. 
The judge leaned over the desk, the lawyers wheeled 
around and faced the prisoner, the jurors looked at each 
other in amazement, while the spectators could hardly 
suppress their intense excitement. The prisoner paused a 
few seconds, and then continued in the same firm, distinct 
voice : 

" I repeat, your honor, that I am not the only one 
guilty of the murder of my wife. The judge on this bench, 
the jury in the box, the lawyers within this bar, and most 
of the witnesses, including the pastor of the old church, 
are also guilty before Almighty God, and will have to ap- 
pear with me before the judgment throne, where we all 
shall be righteously judged. 

" If twenty men conspire together for the murder of one 
person, the law-power of this land will arrest the twenty, 
and each will be tried, convicted and executed for the 
whole murder, and not one-twentieth of the crime. 

"I have been made a drunkard by law. If it had not 
been for the legalized saloons of my town I never would 
have become a drunkard, my wife would not have been 
murdered ; I would not be here now, ready to be hurled 
into eternity. Had it not been for the human traps set 
out with the consent of the Government, I would have 
been a sober man, an industrious workman, a tender father 
and a loving husband. But to-day my home is destroyed, 



THE GREAT DESTROYER. 299 

my wife murdered, my little children — God bless and 
care for them — cast on the mercy of a cold and cruel 
world, while I am to be murdered by the strong arm of the 
State. 

"God knows I tried to reform, but as long as the open 
saloon was in my pathway, my weak, diseased will-power 
was no match against the fearful, consuming, agonizing 
appetite for liquor. At last I sought the protection, care 
and sympathy of the Church of Jesus Christ ; but at the 
communion table I received from the hand of the pastor 
who sits there, and who has testified against me in this 
case, the cup that contained the very same alcoholic ser- 
pent that is found in every bar-room in the land. It 
proved too much for my weak humanity, and out of that 
holy place I rushed to the last debauch that ended with 
the murder of my wife. 

" For one year our town was without a saloon. For one 
year I was a sober man. For one year my wife and 
children were supremely happy, and our little home a 
perfect paradise. 

" I was one of those who signed remonstrance against 
reopening the saloons in our town. The names of one- 
half of this jury can be found to-day on the petition 
certifying to the good moral character (?) of the rumsellers, 
and falsely saying that the sale of liquor was * necessary ' 
in our town. The prosecuting attorney in this case was 
the one who so eloquently pleaded with this court for the 
licenses, and the judge who sits on this bench, and who 
asked me if I had anything to say before sentence of death 
was passed upon me, granted the license." 

The impassioned words of the prisoner fell like coals of 
fire upon the hearts of those present, and many of the 



303 REMARKABLE NARRATIVES. 

spectators and some of the lawyers were moved to tears. 
The judge made a motion as if to stop any further speech 
on the part of the prisoner, when the speaker hastily said : 

" No ! no ! your honor, do not close my lips ; I am 
nearly through, and they are the last words I shall ever 
utter on earth. 

" I began my downward career at a saloon bar — legalized 
and protected by the voters of this commonwealth which 
has received annually a part of the blood -money from the 
poor, deluded victims. After the State has made me a 
drunkard and a murderer, I am taken before another bar 
— the bar of justice (?) — by the same power of law that 
legalized the first bar, and now the law-power will conduct 
me to the place of execution and hasten my soul into 
eternity. I shall appear before another bar — the judg- 
ment bar of God, and there you who have legalized the 
traffic will have to appear with me. Think you that the 
Great Judge will hold me — the poor, weak, helpless victim 
of your traffic — alone responsible for the murder of my 
wife ? Nay ; I, in my drunken, frenzied, irresponsible 
condition have murdered one, but you have deliberately 
and wilfully murdered your thousands, and the murder- 
mills are in full operation to-day with your consent. 

" All of you know in your hearts that these words of 
mine are not the ravings of an unsound mind, but God 
Almighty's truth The liquor traffic of this nation is 
responsible for nearly all the murders, bloodshed, riots, 
poverty, misery, wretchedness and woe. It breaks up 
thousands of happy homes every year, sends the husband 
and father to prison or to the gallows, and drives count- 
less mothers and little children into the world to suffer 
and die. It furnishes nearly all the criminal business of 



THE REVIVAL NEEDED. 301 

this and every other court, and blasts every community it 
touches. 

"You legalized the saloons that made me a drunkard 
and a murderer, and you are guilty with me before God 
and man for the murder of my wife. 

" Your honor, I am done. I am now ready to receive 
my sentence and be led forth to the place of execution, 
and murdered according to the laws of this State. You 
will close by asking the Lord to have mercy on my soul. 
I will close by solemnly asking God to open your blind 
eyes to the truth, to your individual responsibility, so that 
you will cease to give your support to this hell-born 
traffic."— Sel. 



The Revival Needed. 

" Lord, revive thy work." The use of this prayer cer- 
tainly implies that there is more or less backsliding prev- 
alent — that the work of God in the hearts of His professed 
followers is either at a standstill or on the decline. 
Where Christians are living in the enjoyment of the Holy 
Ghost, and walking with God in holiness day by day, 
there is no need of praying for a revival, for they have 
one continually. A revival of the work of God does 
not consist merely of prosperity in church enterprises. 
Churches, Sabbath Schools, parsonages, preachers, mission- 
aries, and colleges may increase, and the work of God be 
on a fast decline at the same time. It means the awaken- 
ing, conviction, conversion, and entire sanctification of the 
whole soul. It means the spread of that kingdom which 



302 REMARKABLE NARRATIVES. 

" is righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost." It 
means holy tempers, clean lives, and pure hearts. To be 
more definite, the revival of God's work makes thorough, 
radical changes ; it unmasks hypocrites, exposes false 
hopes, sandy foundations, and self-deceivers. It sweetens 
tempers and harmonizes the family ; it heals heart divisions 
among brethren, reclaims backsliders, and stimulates God's 
children to be saved " to the uttermost," so that the world 
sees that religion saves men from all sin, making them 
honpst, upright, uncompromising, " full of mercy and good 
works." This revival will break up bad habits, destroy all 
desire for forbidden objects and wean the soul from all 
that is opposed to God. It will lead to " cutting off right 
hands," " plucking out right eyes," to parting with every 
idol, and its converts will count heaven cheap at any price. 
In such a revival you will see, further, the following fruits; 
A tender conscience which dares not indulge in doubtful 
things. The filthy weed is thrown away ; vain personal 
adornment is given up ; foolish fashions forsaken ; the 
abandonment of the saloon, the card-table, the horse-race, 
the dance, the circus, the theatre, the secret lodge, the 
rink, and whatever else hinders communion with God. 
The Lord's house is filled with humble worshippers. There 
is a great increase of Bible- reading ; the prayer and class 
meetings are thronged ; free-will offerings to support God's 
cause are given, and church festivals are abolished ; pro- 
fanity is hushed ; the Sabbath Day is kept holy ; neighbor- 
hood broils are cured ; line fences and other difficulties are 
fixed without going to law * and order, industry, clean- 
liness, temperance, economy and righteousness are pro- 
moted ; the criminal list and taxation are lessened, and aU 
human interests for both worlds are advanced. 



THE REVIVAL NEEDED. 303 

To bring around such a revival as is needed it is neces- 
sary that there should be : 

1. An utter abandonment to God, and implicit reliance 
upon His willingness and power. " It is not by might, nor 
by power, but by my Spirit, saith the Lord of hosts." 
"All things are possible to him that belie veth." The 
preaching, too, needs to be awakening in its character. 
Such subjects as death, eternity, judgment and hell need 
to be faithfully proclaimed in this day of carnal security. 

2. There should be co-operation with God in the use of 
all the means within our power. The first of these is 
prayer for the Holy Spirit. President Edwards says : 
" There is no way that Christians, in a private capacity, 
can do so much to promote the work of God, and advance 
the kingdom of Christ, as by prayer." All the great and 
genuine revivalists known to the Church are great in 
prayer. They prevail with God, and so prevail with men. 
u And being assembled with them, he commanded them 
that they should not depart from Jerusalem, but trait for 
the promise of the Father." " And when they had prayed, 
the place was shaken where they were assembled together ; 
and they were all filled with the Holy' Ghost, and they 
spake the Word of God with boldness." 

3. Burden-bearing for souls is also necessary. "And 
the Lord said unto him, Go through the midst of the 
city . . . and set a mark upon the foreheads of the men 
that sigh and that cry for all the abominations that be 
done in the midst thereof." It is fatal to think that 
simply asking God in a formal way fulfils our whole duty 
in this great matter. But little will be done unless there 
is much earnestness and wrestling with the Lord. One of 
the most successful and holy ministers that ever lived 



304 EEMARKABLE NARRATIVES. 

said : " Extraordinary effects can never be produced by 
ordinary means." 

Every revival costs someone more or less agony of soul. 
" When Zion travailed she brought forth." It is said of 
the sainted Rev. John Smith, " that he had resolved very 
much to lay aside other studies, and to travail in birth for 
the salvation of men's souls, after whose good he most 
earnestly thirsted." 

Prayer, however, is not enough. There is such a thing 
as superfluous prayer. A man prays too much when he 
makes prayer a substitute for labor. It is no use asking 
God to do what He requires us to do ourselves. In seeking 
a revival we must work as well as pray. There are those 
to whom we are clearly bound to extend the offers of salva- 
tion, and when we refuse to perform our plain duty, and 
content ourselves with praying for them, our prayers will 
do no good. " The shirking of the man who prays, and the 
praying of the man who shirks is equally an abomination 
unto the Lord." There are some lazy people who sit down^ 
disobey God, and let precious souls go down to woe, under 
the plea, " I am not led," or "If the Lord opens up my way," 
when there has been an open way before them for years. 
The Bible and the Methodist Discipline teach that we are to 
" trample under foot that enthusiastic doctrine that we are- 
not to do good unless our hearts are free to do it." " As* 
ye have therefore opportunity, let us do good unto all men." 

4. Self-sacrifice and holy living. To push the work oi 
God requires the sacrifice of comfort, money, time and 
sometimes of life itself. Those who engage in this work 
need to be so consecrated to the service of God that they 
are willing to lay down their lives if need be to promote 
pure religion. 



THE REVIVAL NEEDED. 305 

Wesley said : " Give me one hundred preachers who fear 
nothing but sin, and desire nothing but God, and I care 
not whether they are clergymen or laymen. Such alone 
will shake the gates of hell, and set up the kingdom of God 
on earth." 

Rev. B. T. Roberts says : " It is of little use to hold 
extra meetings in an ordinary state of mind. Armful 
after armful of green wood will not of itself warm a room 
on a cold day. To do any good it must be brought into 
contact with enough fire to set it on fire. If you under- 
take to stir others up, you must yourself be stirred. Feel- 
ing begets feeling ; fire kindles fire. People are moA 7 ed by 
the truth, as a train of cars is moved by wood and water. 
Before a wheel goes round there must be heat enough to 
convert the water into steam. Putting great truths into 
the mind is important work ; but to get the man to move, 
those truths must be set on fire so they will burn him, 
out." 

Rev. G. D. Watson says : " If God should let a red-hot, 
sanctified, John-Brown sort of a man burst upon society — 
a man that would strike as much terror to the dead pulpits 
of the Church as to the dens of iniquity — it would be the 
thing we need. You ask, ' Was not Moody such a man V 
I answer, ' No.' Moody's work was entirely too shallow ; 
it did not possess the earthquake attribute. We have had 
for years a Y. M. C. A. surface revival work, that consists 
mostly in loose theological truth, bouncing up for prayers, 
and retiring to a private room, and simply professing 
Christ died for you. God does the best He can with the 
kind of doctrine used. Many of these revivalists hold the 
ruinous error that depravity is never extirpated from the 
soul, but only covered up by the imputed robe of Christ's 
20 



306 REMARKABLE NARRATIVES. 

personal holiness. That doctrine has no earthquake power 
in it ; it is a poetical device of the devil, for he loves to 
be covered over with the borrowed costume of Christ, 
provided he can retain a niche in the heart. Oh, no ! in 
the revival I mean the carnal mind is never repressed 
under borrowed garments, but torn out root and branch ; 
a revival in which no one ever rises for prayers, but where 
they fall and pray for themselves, and weep, and mourn, 
and make the doctor think they are insane ; a revival that 
will make preachers forget their manuscripts, and burst 
out and weep in the pulpit ; a cyclone of mysterious omni- 
presence that, when it strikes a church or community, will 
make people very mad or very happy. 

" I declare, in the presence of God and His hosts, I am 
ready for just such a mora! scene. Nothing is so alarming 
as the utter absence of alarm in the churches. Nothing is 
so dreadfully terrific to my mind as that sinners have no 
terror ! Oh, that God would so baptize with fire a thousand 
people as to render them an incomprehensible amazement 
of power ! Oh, for a few men so dead to all things but 
God, and so filled with Him as to make them more than a 
match for the rest of mankind ! Oh, thou triune God. of 
Sinai, Calvary and Pentecost ! art thou not now nursing, 
under the horizon, the lightning, and thunder, and rain of 
an amazing holiness revival ? Lord, let it come ! Let it 
strike our nation ! Though it may blow the steeples of our 
abominable church pride in the dust ; though it may 
thrust our philanthropic fairs and festivals in the gutter, 
blow the French music out of our choirs, and the feathers 
out of our bonnets ; though it should confound all the wise 
ones, and be understood by no one but thy Divine self, 
let it come ! Thou art the master of thine own tempest* 



THE REVIVAL NEEDED. 307 

Oh, send us a storm from the Holy Ghost before thou 
sendest the storm of the judgment." 

If you are a preacher of the Gospel, and you desire above 
all things to become eminently successful in promoting 
revivals of the work of God, then take the following advice 
which Rev. Henry Breedan once wrote to Rev. Thomas 
Collins : " Without holiness no man shall see the Lord. 
What an awful thing it would be if we who are employed 
about the sanctuary should preach salvation, and then go 
self-damned to hell ! Holiness is everything ! Oh, what 
beauty there is in holiness ! Let us seek her, court her, 
win her, love her, and that for her own sake alone. 

" There is power in holiness. I want Thomas Collins to 
have as much of this power as any man under the stars. 
Stick to your Bible. Be much on your knees. Follow 
Jesus. Thus get power that will make strong-hearted sin- 
ners bend. I often wish that I had an opportunity to con- 
verse with vou. John Smith had an inheritance from 

ml 

Nelson ; I received from Smith ; perhaps I may pass over 
a little to you. 

"1. Be a man of decision ! an administrator ! a popular 
man ! a winner of souls — which is it to be ? At Madeley 
the very worldlings said of Fletcher, ' There goes the soul- 
saver ! ' Make up your mind whether you will be a soul- 
saver or not. 

"2. If you decide to be one, thenceforth make that your 
business. Be devoted to it ; compel everything to bend 
that way ; throw all your energies into it. Be restless. 
Success is not likely, in our age, to overtake the world's 
necessities. While we live we can never have done. Be 
always tenderly yearning for sinners That is a happy 



308 REMARKABLE NARRATIVES. 

unhappiness. A man full of Christlike tears is a noble 
creature. Such concern melts men and tells with God. 

" 3. Keep your eye single. Having chosen your aim, be 
true to it. Do nothing idly, or without meaning. 

" 4. Study the Acts of the Apostles. In those Acts lie 
all the seeds of all evangelical methods, Cultivate fertility 
of expedient. In principle be fixed, but in action manifold. 

" 5. In composing sermons, first fix your eye on what 
you mean to hit. Let nothing in that is not meant to 
strike. 

" 6. In selecting the sermon to be preached, consider 
the people, not yourself ; take not the one that will give 
you the least trouble, nor the one that will win you the 
most credit — but that which is most appropriate to the 
current need. If the people be hungry it is better to feed 
than dazzle them, even though you were able to do it with 
the sheen of diamonds. 

" 7. Choose your hymns carefully. Give them out 
heartily and with much inward devotion. In your first 
prayer plead until the people move ; wait until the 
baptism of the power falls. You must not preach without 
the power. 

" 8. Preach as a dying man to dying men. How would 
you speak if you were sure that in sixty minutes you, with 
nineteen others, would be in eternity, and at present of 
all the twenty you only saved ? In such a case how 
would you entreat and warn and weep ! Do as much like 
that as you can every time you stand with God's message 
of mercy among poor, sin-smitten, dying hearers. 

" 9. Never doubt either God's presence, God's Word, 
God's pity, or God's power. 



EXPERIENCE OF A SPIRITUALIST. 309 

"10. During the closing prayer, remember that success 
or failure will be protracted through eternity. 

"11. If strength permit, marshal the after-meeting 
yourself. Study the peculiarities and tastes of the people 
among whom you labor. Teach the people to confess what 
they receive, and for yourself watch, pray, and believe." 



Remarkable Experience of a 
Spiritualist. 

In his pamphlet entitled "Spirit-Possession," Henry M. 
Hugunin thus relates the awful experience he had with 
Spiritualism. Let the reader take warning : 

In 1850 or 1851 — a few years after the " Rochester 
knockings " had startled the world and laid the foundation 
of modern Spiritualism — a noted Spiritualist in Illinois 
one day told me that " if I only dared," I might become a 
spirit-medium. It seems that there are outward marks by 
which good material for the spirits to work upon can be 
readily recognized by the initiated. For months, at 
intervals, he presented the phenomena of Spiritualism to 
me as the evidence of something that he considered a great 
advantage — the communications of the dead to the living. 
At that period I did not " dare " to become a spirit- 
medium, as he suggested. I was afraid of it as something 
strange and unnatural, and it seemed, too, to run contrary 
to the Bible, for the Spiritualists did not appear to be 
pure men, and they had little real regard for the doctrines 
of the Scriptures. 



310 REMARKABLE NARRATIVES. 

In the spring of 1869, an elderly lady whom I had long 
known and respected, whose integrity I cou]d not doubt 
(intelligent, refined, and a member of an orthodox church), 
confided to me the secret that she had a table in her house 
which would answer questions and follow her about the 
room. Of such things I had heard before, but never 
witnessed, having had neither sufficient curiosity nor con- 
fidence to visit more than one spiritual "circle" — and that 
had proved a failure. The lady further said that however 
sceptical she might be concerning Spiritualism, she could 
not doubt the evidence of her own senses. She also invited 
me to witness the same phenomena at her home. I did so. 
The table, when our hands were laid upon it, would answer 
" yes " to a question from either of us, by tipping over into 
our laps, and when the answer was "no," the table simply 
ivriggled on its legs. It was rather amusing to witness 
this intelligence, and if the answers were not always satis- 
factory, the table — a small but not a very light one — was 
a gmat deal more prompt to answer and more willing to 
communicate with us than many Sunday School scholars 
are when catechised about their lessons. When the lady 
rose from the sofa on which we sat, the table followed her 
a short distance, but not to the extent to which she said it 
had on other occasions. 

This event so excited my curiosity, and secured my 
interest in Spiritualism, that I lost the dread of becoming 
a medium, and began to look upon spirit- communication 
with much favor. Still I did not mingle with Spiritualists 
or visit their " circles," but in a private manner sought to 
obtain intelligence fitom the spirit-world. 

The development in my case was rapid and remarkable, 
and soon became perfect. The communications became 



EXPERIENCE OF A SPIRITUALIST. 311 

continuous, as if someone was writing long and frequent 
letters to me. I felt proud of this new accomplishment, 
and rashly informed my friends. At once their curiosity 
and opposition were aroused — the latter sufficiently to 
awaken in me a spirit of independence and encourage me 
to continue to receive spirit-communications. I may say 
here that I had clear evidence that the communications 
which I received were not dictated by my own mind, and 
seemed to be independent of my own thoughts, as if some 
other person was passing his ideas through my mind and 
nerves to the hand with which I wrote. 

I had by this time become intensely magnetized by the 
spirits. I use this term because my condition then was 
very similar to that which I had previously experienced 
when under the influence of animal magnetism. This was 
spiritual magnetism. I had reached a point where I 
seemed to live in two worlds at once — the terrestrial and 
the spiritual. I had enough of the earthly, with my 
natural senses, to transact regular business every day, but 
my mind and nervous system were greatly etherealized (if 
I may so express it), and the tendency was to communicate 
with the spirits whenever relaxation from business per- 
mitted. When under the influence of animal magnetism, 
I had been enabled to see visions of real objects, and this 
power was again given to me. The spirits were very 
sociable with me, and conversed freely and naturally about 
ordinary earthly topics, frequently introducing new names 
and theories of which I had seldom or never heard. The 
fascination of this intercourse was very great, and the 
spirits appeared anxious *to extend it to my heart's desire. 
They were weaving the net for my soul. 

My condition (for I made no great secret of it) attracted 



312 REMARKABLE NARRATIVES. 

the attention of several friends in the flesh, and I was 
faithfully warned to desist from spirit-communication. 
Even the lady who owned the tipping table solemnly 
counselled me to relinquish Spiritualism as something 
dangerous ; but I was infatuated, and grew angry under 
these repeated cautions. The idea uppermost in my mind 
was this : Connecting the possibility of spirit-communica- 
tion with that of religion, I determined (having now the 
power) to discover whatever of good Spiritualism possessed. 
In this respect I became its champion ; and no sooner did 
I reach this determination than the spirit of evil and his 
emissaries took a deeper and fuller control of my human 
faculties, bodily and mental. / had given myself away to 
the spirits. To overcome me to a greater degree was in 
their power, and they did so. I became more ethereal ized 
or spiritualized, and unfit longer to do worldly business. 
I no longer needed the pencil to receive their communica- 
tions. From that time they spoke with me face to face, 
unseen and unheard by all around except myself. My 
natural senses remained, and on ordinary topics I con- 
versed with friends in the flesh quite rationally, but there 
was such a preponderance of spirit-control that ordinary 
topics were secondary. I was doing business in the spirit- 
world more than in this, and my thoughts — yea, my very 
life was absorbed in the mysteries and delusions that 
thronged about me. 

For about three months I was in the power of the 
spirits, having a dual existence, and greatly tormented by 
their contradictory and unsatisfactoiy operations ; but as 
I had sought their companionship for no evil purpose, and 
had grace enough given me from on high to call upon the 
Lord Jesus Christ to pity me in my miserable and helpless 



EXPERIENCE OF A SPIRITUALIST. 313 

condition, Ifelt that the spirits were often restrained from 
doing me extreme injury by a power that was mightier 
than themselves. Still they tormented me to a very severe 
extent. I desired to be freed from them. I lost much of 
my confidence in them, and their blasphemy and unclean- 
ness shocked me. But they were my constant companions. 
i" could not get rid of them. They tempted me to suicide 
and murder, and to other sins. I was fearfully beset and 
bewildered and deluded. There was no human help for 
me. But almost from the very first I had been inspired 
(as it were by God himself) to make friends with the Lord 
Jesus Christ— the result, I think, of my early religious 
teachings in the Sunday School — who had delivered so 
many from the evil spirits that overcame them during His 
earthly life. Amid the phenomena, delusions and filth of 
Spiritualism, I prayed almost constantly tor help to " the 
One mighty to save. " The reader will remember the 
object with which I plunged into spirit-mediumship — to 
ascertain what good it possessed. / found out. It is the 
same goodness that exists in the "outer darkness" of the 
Bible. I am not going to enlarge upon the wickedness 
that was poured upon me like vials of wrath by the spirits 
because I would not yield and be as wicked as themselves. 
I praise God to-day, and I expect to through time and 
eternity, for the divine care and watchfulness that He 
accorded to me. Giving me faith to trust in His mighty 
power to deliver, bidding me hope, yet withholding deliver- 
ance until He was pleased to send it in all its fulness, in 
His own good time, He still restrained the spirits from 
doing me any important injury. It is true they led me 
into some extravagances of action, and to believe, in a 
measure, a few of their delusions, often combining religion 



31 4 REMARKABLE NARRATIVES. 

and deviltry in a most surprising manner ; but, after all, 
beyond a certain extent, they could not influence me. A 
higher power controlled them. One day, after they had 
been peculiarly annoying, they threatened to kill me, and, 
tired of their torments, I told them to do it. At once 
there was a temporary peace, as if they had been suddenly 
driven back. Often they reviled me, once telling me that 
my prayers had not been heard in heaven in six weeks. 
On one occasion, I intimated a resolution to send for a 
godly minister to come and pray with me, and they threat- 
ened if I did, to tear the house down before morning. I 
sent for him ; he came, and during the night they seemed 
to be more restrained than usual in their demonstrations. 

I was now really at war with the spirits — not trusting 
in anything or anybody to deliver me from them except 
the Lord, yet opposing them and their efforts to overcome 
me. If I yielded to them in the least, even for a moment, 
they would take advantage of it in some way to deceive 
me ; if I opposed them, they tormented me, their power 
sometimes extending to my body as well as to the mind. 
But still I prayed in faith, believing that deliverance 
would come. 

Almost every sin that I had ever committed of any 
importance the spirits paraded before me, so that I could 
read it as out of a book. They instituted courts to try me 
(or pretended to), in which God the Father was supposed 
to be the Judge \ but the trials were nonsense and awfully 
blasphemous. One good effect arose from this. I began 
to hate wickedness in myself and everywhere — I was dis- 
gusted with it, and sick of it; and then I continued pray- 
ing earnestly to be delivered from the spirits and all sin. 
Oh, how I hated it in all its forms ! 



EXPERIENCE OF A SPIRITUALIST. 315 

I believe that at one time Satan himself, hearing my 
prayers, and finding me so bitterly opposed to his servants 
and wickedness, and being in danger of losing so faithful 
a servant of his as I had been in the past, came to the aid 
of the spirits to overcome me if possible. There was more 
of malignity, horrifying blasphemy and awful delusion 
manifested against me than before ; but I praise God for 
the grace that led me to have a deeper faith and hope in 
Christ in that trying hour, and I have reason to believe 
that then God and the devil fought for the possession of 
my soul, and that He who never lost a battle drove away 
my mortal enemy. I felt that I was in awful peril, yet no 
new harm came to me. The very language of the Bible was 
apparently changed by the evil one, as if to destroy my 
confidence in it and in God himself. But with the dread- 
ful temptation I received new grace, even under the 
bewilderment that beset me, and clung to Jesus through 
it all. 

After a season of these varied and wonderful experi- 
ences, I began to receive intimations from God and from 
the spirits (as I think now after the lapse of years) that 
my deliverance was near at hand. I had been among the 
spirits for about three months, and tried in body and mind 
to a certain degree by their constant warfare upon me, but 
not permanently injured in either, and enjoying very good 
physical health. I had exercised by taking long and 
frequent walks, and been nourished by healthful food ; I 
had thoroughly repented of every sin and become a believer 
and follower of Jesus, who had been my Friend through 
all, and I felt that I w^as really soon to be delivered from 
the labyrinth of wickedness and mystery in which I had 
existed for so many weeks. One morning I was asked by 



316 REMARKABLE NARRATIVES. 

an unseen and mysterious associate (I know not whom) to 
give my promise never more to have anything to do with 
Spiritualism. It may have been a messenger from the 
Lord, or from my spiritual enemy — I know not ; but a 
positive answer seemed to be required. That promise I 
solemnly gave, and have solemnly kept for seven years, 
and by the grace of God I shall keep it until I am called 
into the world of spirits. I think it was either on that 
day or the next that my communication with the spirits 
ceased, and I was at liberty, filled with praise and joy at 
God's deliverance of my soul from the peril through which 
I had so marvellously passed. From that hour I have been 
a Christian. 

I have already referred to the delusory character of these 
phenomena, and the little confidence that can be placed in 
what the spirits declare and perform. For instance, not 
seeing the beings who guided my hand when communications 
were written, it was impossible to identify the controlling 
spirit, although I confess that T sometimes had an intuitive 
impression that it was a certain individual whom I had 
known in this life ; yet here there was great room for 
delusion, and I may always have been mistaken. When I 
conversed with them face to face, in a higher condition of 
mediumship — my spiritual hearing being opened — it was 
the same, for I found they could imitate the voice of one 
man who is still in the flesh, and with whom I was formerly 
very intimate. I knew that this person was not dead, and 
that he was not speaking to me, but the imitation was very 
perfect. I came in contact, also, with several who pro- 
fessed to be persons whom I had known before they died, 
and whom I knew were dead. (These were, as I have 
reason to believe, people who had died in their sins.) But 



EXPERIENCE OF A SPIRITUALIST. 317 

to this day, I am not prepared to declare positively that 
they were the persons whom they represented. They may 
have been, but where so much of delusion existed, it was 
somewhat difficult to decide between the false and the real. 
And this seems to me to be the great objection to accepting 
Spiritualism as a temporal or spiritual adviser, as thousands 
are doing, only to find themselves deceived. 

One day I received a communication purporting to be 
written by a very dear departed friend from the Bible 
place of torment, nattering me, and warning others in the 
flesh to change their course lest they should go there too 
when they died. As I had good reasons for believing that 
this dear friend was in glory, saved through the atoning 
blood of Jesus Christ, and as I was still in my sins, I have 
set down the communication in question as a fraud — a 
forgery. I also received several communications of a 
religious character. At first they seemed sincere and 
consistent. But one day, after writing very piously, the 
controlling spirit finished up the communication with the 
vilest and silliest language imaginable. There are hypo- 
crites in the spirit world, whether they be dead men or 
devils. 

The reader may remember that I was looking for the 
good of Spiritualism, sustained and restrained, as I have 
reason to believe, by the power of God himself, and so 
prevented from yielding too much to the baleful influences 
that surrounded me. Sinner as I was, I was yet a believer 
in the truth of the Bible as coming from God (through my 
youthful instruction), and this fact brought me into con- 
troversy with the spirits at once. One day, it seemed to 
me, they sent a committee to examine me on Christian 
doctrine, and now, sometimes, I am impressed with the 



318 REMARKABLE NARRATIVES. 

resemblance of these spirits to the opposers of Jesus and 
His apostles while on earth, or the famous French infidels. 
In my ignorance of Scripture l©re and vital religion, I 
could not argue successfully against their dogmas, and yet 
I was not convinced that I was wrong in believing the 
Bible (it was such a comfort to me even then), or that 
they were right in opposing it. 

I do not propose to detail all that I found in Spirit- 
ualism. Nothing could induce me to repeat much of the 
language they used, or the delusions which they prepared 
to deceive me. Of the untruthfulness of those that I 
encountered there could be no doubt. I found them not 
only wicked, but possessing a supernatural shrewdness 
that might easily mislead a human mind that was 
unguarded as to consequences, if once brought within 
their influence. Who is so subtle and deluding as Satan, 
"the father of lies'"? Has he not many faithful servants 
in the flesh, and if they die in his service, will they be any 
better in the spirit- world ? And if the spirits are like 
those demons who destroyed the swine at Gadara, fearing 
they should be tormented before the time (Matt. viii. 29), 
are we to look for truth and goodness in them ? I followed 
the Bible rule, tried the sjnrits, and found that those with 
whom I mingled were not of God. 

The question has arisen, are all the spirits who com- 
municate with men, of this evil class ? Let the spirits 
answer this question. That good (saved) persons out of 
the flesh might communicate with those ptill in the body, 
I believe is not impossible, if the Lord should permit it ; 
but I think He seldom does. Mr. Daniels relates the fol- 
lowing in " Spiritualism not of God " : 

In 1853, Mr. William B. Lanning, of Trenton, KJ., 



EXPERIENCE OF A SPIRITUALIST. 319 

. . . not being fully satisfied of the real character of 
these spirits, held the following colloquy with one, through 
a writing medium. The spirit, on being asked if it was 
right and beneficial for the human race to consult these 
spirits, replied, " Yes, it will make them happier and 
better." He then testified in substance to the main doc- 
trines of these spirits, and said, though an unconverted 
man, he was happy ; that departed Christians were among 
these spirits — all were happy ; there was to be no resurrec- 
tion of the dead, no future punishment, nor Day of Judg- 
ment. But on being cross-examined a little, the spirit 
became very angry and unwilling to answer, and begged 
to depart ; said he would go and get more spirits and 
return. Said my friend, "No. When you go, I want you 
to stay away ; but at present do you answer my questions. 
In the name of the Lord do I demand it." The " happy " 
spirit quailed, and Mr. L. proceeded : Is the Bible true 1 
Yes. 

The Bible forbids necromancy and the consulting of 
familiar spirits. Which shall I believe, you or the Bible 1 
The Bible. 

Why then did you tell me that it was right and useful 
to consult the spirits ? Because I wanted to deceive you. 

What is the business of these spirits with men ? What 
do you think it is ? 

I think it is to deceive. Very well, you are correct. 

Are you happy ? No, I am miserable. 

Is there a hell ? Yes. 

Are you in hell ? No, not yet. 

Do you expect to go there 1 Yes. 

When 1 At the Day of Judgment. 

Is there to be a Day of Judgment 1 Yes. 



320 REMARKABLE NARRATIVES. 

Is there to be a resurrection of the dead ? Yes. 

Have you any prospect of happiness 1 I have no hope. 

In the name of the Lord, is there a good spirit — the 
spirit of a departed Christian among all of these rapping 
and writing spirits ? No, not one. 

Where are the spirits of departed Christians 1 The 
Lord has taken them. 

Why then did you tell my brother in Philadelphia the 
contrary of all this 1 Because I wished to deceive him. 

Could you deceive him ? Yes. 

(The brother was a Spiritualist.) 

Why could you deceive him ? Because he is a fool. 

Why is he a fool 1 Because he doesn't believe the Bible. 

Can't you deceive me 1 No. 

Why ? Because you believe the Bible. 

Will you tell my brother what you have told me ? Yes* 

I want to hear from you no more ; good-bye forever. 
Spirit — Good-bye forever. 

Of those who profess and practise Spiritualism, thousands 
undoubtedly are sincere seekers after truth in forbidden 
places. Deceived and overcome by the spirits, they are 
content to be governed temporally and spiritually by them. 
The phenomena of Spiritualism become a source of wonder 
to them, being supernatural, and serve to strengthen their 
faith in the power of the spirits, and, afterwards, in the 
truth of spirit-teachings. After that, these proselytes are 
willing to believe almost anything, if it professes to come 
from the spirits of departed persons whom they have loved 
and respected in this life. Here is the infatuation that 
satisfies the minds and consciences of the great mass of 
Spiritualists — the motive that leads them to look no further 
for religious doctrine, and to despise whatever opposes 



EXPERIENCE OF A SPIRITUALIST. 321 

itself to their fixed devotion to the spirits. As the Bible 
offers this opposition, it is rejected, and this rejection of 
the Word of God is favored, if not directly advocated, by 
the spirits. Hence so few Spiritualists (misled and 
infatuated, but satisfied, not realizing that they are 
deceived) have no desire to break away from the allure- 
ments that hold them spellbound. This infatuation of 
Spiritualism leads bad men and women in the flesh to con- 
trive and practise counterfeit spiritual phenomena ; and 
every little while the press teems with " exposures of 
another spiritual humbug, " and the details are widely read 
and denounced by those who are not Spiritualists, as well 
as by those Spiritualists who have not been able to 
distinguish between the true and false phenomena until the 
counterfeit was unmistakably exposed. 

At the time when I was absorbed in Spiritualism, I was 
not dependent upon other mediums (being a " high " one 
myself), nor " circles," nor " seances," or any of the 
machinery in use among real and counterfeit Spiritualists. 
I associated with none of these people, although several 
paid me brief visits, so that I was not influenced by them. 
I dealt in a private capacity with the spirits, without 
requiring the machinery used by the genuine or bogus 
Spiritualists of these days. Therefore, whatever Spirit- 
ualists may say, I feel that I am a competent witness 
under God, against the errors and delusions of a mysterious 
and soul-destroying infatuation. Since then I have 
opposed Modern Spiritualism for the following reasons : 

1. It is expressly forbidden and denounced in the Bible, 
under the titles of "doctrines of devils," " sorcery," " witch- 
craft," "familiar spirit," etc., in the following passages : 
Isaiah viii. 19, 20; Leviticus xix. 31, xx. 6, 27 ; Deut. 
21 



322 REMARKABLE NARRATIVES. 

xviii. 10, 11 ; 1 Sam. xv. 22 ; 1 Ckron. x. 13, 14; 2 Kings 
xxiii. 24; 2 Chron. xxxiii. 6, 11; Isaiah xlvii. 9, 12; 
2 Thess. ii. 9, 12 ; Isaiah xix. 3, 4 ; Gal. v. 26 ; Rev. xxi. 8. 
2. Because it denies the truth of the Bible, and reviles its 
teachings. 3. Because it bears the stamp of demonism, 
while endeavoring to pass itself off for something virtuous. 
4. Because it blasphemes the Creator and Ruler of the 
Universe, and denies the existence of a personal, all-ruling 
God. 5. It rejects the divine nature and mediatorial 
office of Jesus Christ, while some of its followers claim to 
have divine natures themselves. 6. It claims a proba- 
tionary state after death, while the Bible expressly denies 
it. 7. It is a delusion and a snare, misleading its devotees 
into silly and evil actions, under the impression that they 
are doing and talking sensibly. 8. It drives hundreds 
into suicide, murder, free-love and insanity. 9. Its visible 
phenomena, although better than its teachings, are unsatis- 
factory and useless. 10. No reliance can be placed upon 
what the spirits say. If they are sometimes truthful, it is 
to excite the confidence of those who converse with them 
and lead to a firmer belief in what they pretend to reveal. 
Lastly, Jesus and His apostles drove legions of demons 
out of the " mediums " of his day, and restored them to 
their senses. (See Luke ix. 37-42.) 



IS THE WORLD IMPROVING ? 323 



Is the World Morally Improving or 
Degenerating ? 

This is a momentous question. In attempting to answer 
it we propose to quote some facts and figures from various 
sources, and let the reader form his own conclusions. 

In order to do justice to the subject, it is only fair that 
both sides should be presented. Let us take the bright 
side first. We acknowledge with thankfulness, 

" That at last," says D. T. Taylor, " all nations are open 
to the Gospel, that China, India, Japan, and huge, dark 
Africa have heard of Christ — that since 1 804 several hun- 
dred millions of the Holy Word of Life have been sent 
into all lands, until men of 267 tongues can now read it — 
that the dear old Book is thickly strewn over our lost 
world as are forest leaves in autumn — that since 1800 
between two and three millions of heathen have found the 
world's Saviour. We are glad that during this wonderful 
hundred years the translations of the Scriptures have in- 
creased fivefold ; the evangelical missionary societies ten- 
fold ; the number of missionaries fif tyfold ; contributions in 
money twenty-fivefold ; the circulation of the Bible thirty- 
fold ; and the number of converts from heathendom thirty- 
fivefold. We rejoice that the communicants of all Pro- 
testant churches number (says Bishop Foster) 30,000,000.' 

The prophet Daniel, in referring to the last days, says, 
" Many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be in- 
creased." (Dan. xii. 4.) 

The American Bible Society alone, since its organization 
in A.D. 1816, has issued more than thirty million copies 
and parts of copies of the Bible, in more than 1 25 different 



324 REMARKABLE NARRATIVES. 

languages and dialects. More than double this number of 
volumes have been issued by the British and Foreign Bible 
Society since its organization. The Illustrated Christian 
Weekly, March 6, 1886, says: "The London Religious 
Tract Society was organized in 1790; the British and 
Foreign Bible Society, in 1 804 ; the American Bible So- 
ciety, in 1816 ; and the American Tract Society, in 1825; 
so that the average age of these four great societies is 
seventy-five years. Their cash receipts have been over 
$112,000,000, 6Y an average of over $1,000 a day for each 
during their entire existence. The issues of the two tract 
societies would be equal to a two-page tract for every in- 
habitant of the globe. Since 1880 the issues of the two 
Bible societies have averaged over 10,000 copies for each 
business day, while their issues for 1885 were over 17,000 
copies a day, twenty-eight per minute, reckoning ten hours 
per day. From these two sources alone, not including the 
seventy other Bible societies, over 150,000,000 copies of 
the Word of God have gone forth over the world during 
this nineteenth century." 

What a fulfilment of the prophetic declaration that 
" knowledge shall be increased" ! 

Only ninety-five years ago, in the year 1801, the first 
religious newspaper in the world was published in Ports- 
mouth, N.H. Then but forty copies could be printed per 
hour, now 40,000 copies, and millions of such agencies for 
the dissemination of knowledge go forth weekly to enlighten 
every part of the world. 

A little more than a hundred years ago there was not a 
Sunday School in the world, the first one being organized 
by Robert Raikes, at Gloucester, England, in 1784. Now 
every town and almost every neighborhood has its Sunday 
School, where the knowledge of the Bible is taught. 



IS THE WORLD IMPROVING ? 325 

But if we turn our eyes towards the development of the 
arts and sciences within the last hundred years, we behold an 
equally wonderful increase of knowledge in this direction. 

Would people now think that they could do without 
such conveniences as matches, steel pens, cooking stoves, 
oil lamps, sewing machines, farm machinery, railroads, 
telegraph, telephone, electric lights, etc., etc. And yet, 
less than a hundred years ago, none of these things were 
in existence. 

The prophecy states that in the time of the end " many 
shall run to and fro." Do we not see a fulfilment of this % 
Who can visit any of our great railroad centres and view 
the throngs of people, without contrasting the present with 
the recent past, when the stage coach was the most rapid 
means of travel ? At the Grand Central depot in New 
York 165 trains arrive and leave daily. 

" More has been done, richer and more prolific discov- 
eries have been made, grander achievements have been 
realized, in the course of the fifty years of our lifetime 
than in all the previous lifetime of the race, since states, 
nations, and politics, such as history makes us acquainted 
with, have had their being." — London Spectator. 

''The great facts of the nineteenth century stand out so 
conspicuously above the achievements of any preceding 
century, that it would be affectation of humility not to 
recognize and speak of them." — Union Hand Book, 1870. 

''Never was there such activity of inventions within the 
history of mankind as in the present day." — Phrenological 
Journal, April, 1871. 

"The number of inventions that have been made during 
the past fifty years is unprecedented in the history of the 
world." — Scientific American. 



326 REMARKABLE NARRATIVES. 

Alas, the picture changes. Although it is nearly nine- 
teen centuries since Christ died, there are still 1,000,000,- 
000 souls on earth who are unsaved. Of the 390,000,000 
of so-called Christians, including Romanists, Greeks and 
Protestants, a vast majority have only a nominal, doubtful 
religion that does not, cannot save them. Over against 
the 30,000,000 professedly converted to Christ, there are 
80,000,000 of Protestants (omitting the Roinish and 
Greek churches) unconverted, and voluntarily remaining 
in sin right in the very heart of our best Christendom. 
Our only hope for the 1,400,000,000 on earth, only less 
than a third of whom are saved at all, is in the 30,000,000 
of church members ; and Bishop Foster, according to the 
New York Independent, throws one-half of these out, declar- 
ing that they are but " undeveloped idle factors/' leaving but 
15,000,000 of active, working Christians in all the globe. 

Says Bishop Foster : " The Church boasts that she is 
going to conquer the world, and comes from her palaces 
and princely farms and subscribes fifty cents a head for 
the undertaking." 

All Christendom collects the sum of $10,000,000 a year 
for mission work ; put over against it that the American 
nation " expends the sum of $20,000,000 each year for 
imported artificial flowers to put in the head-gear of their 
women. Put over against it the fact, that Boston alone 
(says Dr. Dorchester) expends $50,000,000 each year for 
intoxicating liquor — and where is boasting ? " 

A certain missionary society met in Boston some time 
ago, and reported that since sixty years ago $25,000,000 
had been received and expended by it to evangelize the 
world. But the shameful fact remains, that the liquor 
bill of the United States is $900,000,000, and the tobacco 



IS THE WORLD IMPROVING? 327 

bill $650,000,000 more, "not every sixty years, but every 
twelve months/' which is sixty times as much money for 
the devil in one year as the grandest missionary society 
on this continent could collect for the Lord's work in sixty 
years ! And shall we ignore the stinging fact — oh, tell 
it not in Gath ! — that the wretched Mormon sect has 
more missionaries to-day than has the American Board of 
Foreign Missions ! 

The Christian Union says : " The annual increase of 
population far exceeds the number of conversions to Christ. 
The State of New York has more heathen by deliberate 
choice within her borders than there are members of 
churches in the heathen world. And while from 100,000 
to 200,000 are supposed to be yearly evangelized, the total 
number no more than equals the annual victims to alcohol 
in the three Christian countries of Germany, Great Britain, 
and the United States." 

A recent issue of the Missionary Review gives these 
facts : " In the year 1800 the common estimates rarely 
placed the population of the world as high as 800,000,0u0. 
Let us suppose it even 1,000,000,000 — an estimate that 
would be usually considered extravagant. Of this 1,000,- 
000,000, it is claimed that there were 200,000,000 Chris- 
tians of all kinds, Greek, Romish and Protestant. This 
leaves 800,000,000 of the non-Christian population of the 
world in 1800. The present population is reckoned by 
the highest authorities at about 1,400,000,000. Of these, 
400,000,000 are claimed as nominal Christians. Suppose 
these to be all true Christians — and none will claim that 
— we have 1,000,000,000 yet unsaved. That is, there are 
200,000,000 more souls to be reached and rescued by the 
Gospel than there were in 1800," now ninety -five years ago. 



328 REMARKABLE NARRaTIVLS. 

Says Rev. D. T. Taylor : " We boast of tlie light dissemi- 
nated by the press, forgetting that it is Satan's agency as 
well as God's ; forget that in Great Britain the immoral, 
infidel and blasphemous publications each year reach the 
issue of nearly 40,000,000 (Edinburgh Review), which is 
more than all the publications of all the religious societies 
put together, — Bradlaugh's vile, atheistic weekly alone 
circulating 250,000 copies. We forgf.t that a single, secular, 
novelistic journal at New York outnumbers in its weekly 
issues all the religious journals and periodicals in New 
England, — forged that seventy-five per cent, of the papers 
and books of our time are light reading of a frivolous kind, 
devoted to fiction and nonsense, and do not lead the mind 
to God, — forget that of the vast number drawn out from 
the twelve million books in our public libraries from ten to 
twenty are novels where one is religious, — forget that a 
venal, corrupt, pernicious spirit pervades much of the 
press, which outpours perpetually a stream of unchristian 
thought, destructive of godliness and poisonous to the 
minds of our youth, by which there is cheated and fostered 
a dislike to all real life, and a contempt for all real good. 
In much of the press, fun and filth rule the hour." 

The Truth says : " The most careless eye cannot £&il to 
perceive the fearful desecration of the Lord's Day, which 
is almost wholly given up to diversion or business and 
which, if unchecked, will speedily leave no audience to 
whom the Gospel can be preached. Christians themselves 
are carried away by the wave that will surely dash the 
Church like a broken wreck upon the rocks. Twenty -five 
years ago a Christian could scarcely be found who would 
read the Sunday papers ; to-day they are not only taken 
and read by a large majority of church members in Ameri- 



IS THE WOULD IMPROVING ? 329 

can cities, but by many ministers. Twenty-five years igy 
a Christian received discipline if he travelled on the Lord's 
Day, except under the pressure of necessity ; now it is the 
rule for professed Christians to start upon a considerable 
journey on Saturday, so as to save time. It is in the pul- 
pit, indeed, that the work of disintegration and ruin most 
rapidly progresses. The more boldly a preacher denies 
the inspiration of God's Word, the atoning sacrifice of 
Christ, and the future punishment of the wicked ; the 
more adroitly he leaves out all flavor of the Gospel in his 
sermons and substitutes the greatness of man ; the more 
impudently he advertises sensational topics and clap-trap 
performances worthy of a clown, the more certainly he 
draws a crowd, and is lauded to the skies by the secular 
press, which is conducted almost wholly in the interests of 
infidelity. All of this may be ridiculed as a croaking of 
a bird of ill-omen, and it will be asserted again and again 
that the world is growing better every day. But if it is 
really growing better, it has a poor way of showing it, 
while the daily papers are loaded to disgust with the 
record of crimes, and immorality is rolling away the very 
foundations of society, and the Church is obviously losing 
her hold on the masses of the people." 

The Gongregationalist having received answers from 
twenty-nine ministers to a circular sent out making 
inquiry as to the observance of the Sabbath in New 
England, says : " All testify to degeneracy and deplore 
results. Desecration has increased, and morality also 
decreases. Religion is losing its authority, and the state 
of the community is becoming worse." 

Rev. Dr. Kitteridge, Chicago, Presbyterian, says: "It 
matters not in what direction you look, sin is on the 



330 REMARKABLE NARRATIVES. 

increase, and the Church is losing ground in her conflict 
with sin ; she has almost ceased to be felt as a power. If 
a majority of our church organizations were to-day to 
become extinct, the world would hardly know it." 

Rev. J. I. Swander, Freemont, Ohio, referring to ecclesi- 
astical amusements, says : "They are ripening an epoch in 
the world's history, when Jehovah will again speak in 
thunder tones similar to those which began to shake the 
Continent of Europe in the dawning of the Reformation. 
What shall the harvest be if we continue to seal with the 
sanction of heaven the principles and practices of hell ? 
The old landmark between two distinct orders of human 
character is passing away. Sheep and goats feed in the same 
range of pasture, and there is, consequently, not much appar- 
ent difference in their respective wools. Progressive euchre 
and retrogressive religion move hand in hand. The most 
popular amusements are common to both saint and sinner. 
Both parties seem disposed to meet on a common level, and 
form a treaty of peace. Zeal for God ! Heaven have 
mercy upon such willing victims of deep delusion ! The 
only value of such religion is its prophetic utterances. 
They reveal the inward emptiness of mere nominal 
Christianity, and foretell the ultimate marriage with 
genuine iniquity. May the chariot wheels of God's be- 
neficent providence move on with rapid speed, and bring 
the inevitable crisis." 

The late Hon. J. B. Finch, speaking of the United 
States, says : "There is not a large city in the land that is 
not controlled by its grog shops." 

Says Bishop Foster : " Rum engenders poverty, poverty 
and rum engender crime. From the Government rum- 
shop the wild beast hunts his prey. Is Christendom 



IS THE WORLD IMPROVING? 331 

struck with judicial blindness that she sleeps 1 Are her 
eyes h olden that she cannot see ? There are armies march- 
ing and countermarching, with banners on which are 
emblazoned Dynamite, Anarchism, Communism, Nihilism, 
No Sabbath, Down with the Church and State, recruited 
from the dram shop and officered from the kennel. Are we 
so deaf that we do not hear the tramp of the gathering 
legions ? Nations that fatten the wild beasts of passion 
will be devoured by the wild beasts of rapine and ruin." 

M. Jolly, an eminent French doctor, says : " There is in 
France an increasing tendency to mental diseases generated 
by the increasing consumption of alcoholic drinks ; and in 
proportion as liquor drinking increases, so do paupers, 
vagabonds, beggars, suicides, idiots, dwarfs and murderers 



increase." 



Rev. Dr. Parker, of London, in his book, " The Inner 
Life of Christ," sa}^s : " England was never baser in her 
morals in many public aspects of her history than she is at 
this moment." 

The recent revelations of the Pall Mall Gazette, of the 
immorality in high quarters, certainly goes to confirm this 
statement. 

"In all civilized nations," writes Dr. Morselli, of Italy, 
"suicide has gone on increasing more rapidly than 
population." 

In the United States, in Australia, France, Italy, Eng- 
land and Ireland, and all Christian nations, statistics show 
that insanity, as the result of crime, is rapidly increasing. 

Mr. Moody said, in a recent sermon at the Tabernacle : 
"You say the world is growing better. What a thrill of 
horror the Parkman murder sent through society! Now 
a hundred Parkmans might be murdered in a week, and it 
would produce no excitement." 



332 REMARKABLE NARRATIVES. 

Henry Ward Beecher speaks in the following scathing 
terms : " All the frame-work of society seems to be dissolv- 
ing On every side we find men false to the most impor- 
tant trusts. Even the judges on the bench are bought and 
sold like meat in the shambles. One must go into court 
with a long purse to obtain justice. The judiciary of New 
York stinks like Sodom and Gomorrah. Men say they 
hardly know a court in which to trust a case. It is no 
longer an honor to sit on the bench, for if the judge be an 
upright man ; his character will be contaminated by the 
great majority of his associates. " 

H. Grattan Guinness, in his late work, " Light for the 
Last Days," says : " The religion of these last days has been 
well called a baptized heathenism ; Christian in creed, 
heathen in practice." 

Bev. C. H. Spurgeon, in the Sword and Trowel for 
December, 1887, says: "A man of God writes us as 
follows : ' You cannot well overstate the spiritual 
death and dearth which prevail in the provinces. 
Where the " minister is successful " no Unitarian would be 
offended with the preaching, and where "not successful," 
we see a miserably superficial handling of the Word 
without powder. Of course there are valuable exceptions. 
What can be expected as to spirituality in the Church when 
deacons are better acquainted with " Hamlet " and Irving's 
acting than with the Word of God 1 And what about 
the next age, when the children are treated to pantomimes, 
and a taste is created for these things \ ' This brother's 
lamentation is of a piece wj*h hosts of others which load 
our table. They come from men who are second to none 
in spiritual weight. Either these brethren are dreaming, 
or they are located in specially bad places ; or else there is 



IS THE WORLD IMPROVING? 333 

grievous cause for humiliation. We will not go deep into 
this question, it is too painful. The extent to which sheer 
frivolity and utterly inane amusement have been carried 
in connection with some places of worship would almost 
exceed belief. We call the attention of our readers to the 
fact that doctrine has been the ground of battle in the 
Down-grade struggle which has been chosen by our 
opponents, but on the matter of prayer-meetings and 
worldliness they have been prudently silent. The Lord 
our God is holy, and He cannot compromise His own 
glorious name by working with persons whose grovelling 
tastes lead them to go to Egypt — we had almost 
said to Sodom — for their recreations. Is this walking 
with God ? Is this the manner in which Enochs are 
produced 1 It is a heart-sorrow to have to mention 
such things ; but the work of- the Lord must be done 
faithfully, and this evil must be laid bare. There can 
be no doubt that all sorts of entertainments, as 
nearly as possible approximating to stage-plays, have been 
carried on in connection with places of worship, and are, 
at this present time, in high favor. Can these things pro- 
mote holiness, or help in communion with God 1 Can men 
come away from such things and plead with God for the 
salvation of sinners and the sanctification of believers ? 
We loathe to touch the unhallowed subject ; it seems so 
far removed from the walk of faith, and tiie way of 
heavenly fellowship. In some cases the follies complained 
of are even beneath the dignity of manhood, and fitter for 
the region of the imbecile than for thoughtful men." 

Rev. H. Bonar, D.D., says : " The religion of the day is 
an easy-minded religion; a religion without conflict and 
wrestling, without self-denial and sacrifice ; a religion 



334 REMARKABLE NARRATIVES. 

which knows nothing of the pangs of the new birth as its 
commencement, and nothing of the desperate struggle with 
the devil, day by day, making us long for resurrection- 
deliverance, for the binding of the adversary, and for the 
Lord's arrival. It is a second-rate religion, — a religion in 
which there is no largeness, no grandeur, no potency, no 
noble-mindedness, no elevation, no self-devotedness, no all- 
constraining love. It is a hollow religion, with a fair 
exterior, but an aching heart, — a heart unsatisfied, a soul 
not at rest, a conscience not at peace with God ; a religion 
marked, it may be, by activity and excitement, but betray- 
ing all the while the consciousness of a wound hidden and 
unhealed within, and hence unable to animate to lofty 
doings, or supply the strength needed for such doings. It 
is a feeble religion, lacking the sinews and bones of hardier 
times, — very different from the indomitable, much-enduring, 
storm-braving religion, nob merely of apostolic days, but 
even of the Reformation. It is an uncertain religion, that 
is to say, it is not rooted in certainty ; it is not the over- 
flowing of a soul assured of pardon, and rejoicing in the 
filial relationship between itself and God. Heace there is 
no liberty of service, for the question of personal acceptance 
is still an unsettled thing ; there is a working for pardon 
but not from pardon. Hence all is bondage, heaviness, 
irksomeness. There is a speaking for God, but it is with a 
faltering tongue ; there is a laboring for God, but it is 
with fettered hands ; there is a moving in the way of His 
commandments, but it is with a heavy drag upon our 
limbs. Hence the inefficient, uninfluential character of 
our religion. It does not tell on others, for it has not yet 
fully told upon ourselves. It falls short of its mark, for 
the arm that drew the bow is paralyzed." 



IS THE WORLD IMPROVING? 335 

Says the Christian Herald : "It is a fact that about in 
the same ratio that the cause of experimental religion de- 
clines, immorality and vice increase." 

The Philadelphia Times says : " Honesty has fled from 
the world, and sincerity has fallen asleep. Piety has hid- 
den herself, and justice cannot find the way. The helper 
is not at home, and charity lies sick. Benevolence is under 
arrest, and faith is nearly extinguished. The virtues go 
a-begging, and truth has long since been buried. Credit is 
turned lazy, and conscience is pinned to the wall." 

Says the Hornellsville Times : " The records of the 
past have never presented a more fearful and corrupt state 
of society than now exists throughout most parts_of the 
United States. The newspapers from every quarter are 
becoming in ore and more loaded with the records of crime." 

The North American says : " From the terrible evidences 
of human depravity which develop themselves from day to 
day, we begin to think that our cities are rapidly descend- 
ing to the level of Sodom and Gomorrah." 

The New York Herald says : " Crimes of all descrip- 
tions are on the increase, especially those of the blackest 
dye, the increase be ng much greater than the proportionate 
increase of population." 

Says the Exjyositor, a political paper : " Crimes, unpre- 
cedented in number and unequalled in atrocity, fill every 
section of our country with horrors, exhibiting a hardened 
barbarity, in their details, only to be exceeded in the 
bosom of demons," etc. 

Says the Scientific American: " It is admitted by all 
parties that crimes of the most outrageous and unprecedented 
character abound throughout the country, and probably 
throughout the world, to a degree wholly unparalleled. ' 



336 REMARKABLE NARRATIVES. 

The New York Tribune says : " The telegraph wires 
bend under their weight of woe ; the old earth quivers 
with throbs of agony from the centre to the pole ; cities 
are shaken down, countries are engulfed ; fair domains are 
overflowed with red-hot lava ; wife is arrayed against hus- 
band, mother against child, son against father." 

The pious Robert Pollok, author of " Course of Time," 
many years ago clearly foresaw the times in which we live > 
and thus graphically describes them : 

" Meanwhile the Earth increased in wickedness, 
And hasted daily to fill up her cup. 
Satan raged loose, Sin had her will, and Death 
Enough. Blood trod upon the heels of blood ; 
' Revenge, in desperate mood, at midnight met 
Revenge ; war brayed to war ; deceit deceived 
Deceit ; lie cheated lie ; and treachery 
Mined under treachery; and perjury 
Swore back on perjury; and blasphemy 
Arose with hideous blasphemy ; and curse 
Loud answered curse ; and drunkard, stumbling, fell 
O'er drunkard fallen ; and husband husband met. 
Returning each from other's bed defiled ; 
Thief stole from thief : and robber on the way 
Knocked robber down ; and lewdness, violence,. 
And hate met lewdness, violence, and hate. 
O Earth ! thy hour was come." 

Rev. D. T. Taylor says : " Ours too is an age of gigantic 
thefts. The enormous scale on which this crime proceeds, 
has no parallel in the past. Somebody stole a million of 
dollars from the exchequer of Russia. Then Kentucky 
was robbed of some two millions by state officials, and 



IS THE WORLD IMPROVING ? 337 

South Carolina suffered in a similar manner a theft of some 
millions. A New York bank lost three millions by theft ; 
in about two years defalcations in Philadelphia reached an 
equal sum ; while in Boston in but a few months the frauds 
and thefts aggregated the sum of three millions. All this 
was eclipsed by the infamous Whiskey Ring, that, con- 
scienceless as ever, stole from the Government the sum of 
six or seven millions of dollars. On a still greater scale of 
crime Tweed and his gang stole the vast sum of twenty-six 
million dollars from the city of New York, while in the Old 
World the managers of the Glasgow Bank, not to be outdone 
in rascality, stole thirty million dollars from the Scotch 
people. To cap the cfimax of giant thefts, the city of New 
York is again said to have been robbed of the sum of 
thirty-three million dollars by a ring of its officials ! Search 
all history and you cannot find another such showing as 
this. The awful record is reserved for this last evil time. 

" Not all the lesser thieves are known — not all are caught. 
A host are yet outside of prison-bars, and many are in the 
Dominion. Says Br. Talmage : ' The reason some men 
don't steal $200,000 is because they don't get a chance/ 
There are honest men yet, but the spirit of theft fills the 
world to-day, and is a ruling principle with a large and 
growing class." 

Rev. Joseph Cook says: "Out of every 10,000 deaths 
in Europe, seven are murders — but out of every 10,000 
deaths in the United States, twenty-one are murders. 

11 Since 1850 we have had very accurate statistics, and 
it will not do to say that the apparent increase of crime in 
the United States is the result of increased diligence in 
the exposure of it, and not of the increase of crime itself. 
I take up statistics from an authoritative work and read 
22 



338 REMARKABLE NARRATIVES. 

that the deaths from drink in every thousand of the popu- 
lation are, in England, two every year • Scotland, three ; 
Ireland, two ; France, two ; Switzerland, three ; Sweden, 
six ; and in New York, my native state, twelve. (Mulhall : 
Die. Stat.) The divorces and separations in every thousand 
anarriages were in 1880, in England, two ; Scotland, three ; 
France, nine ; in Massachusetts, forty-five. The ratio of 
murders per million has of late in England been 711 ; in 
Ireland, 883; in France, 796; Germany, 837; in the United 
States, 2,460. What countries are worse than ours 1 ? Only 
Italy, only hot-blooded Spain exceeds us in the proportion 
of murders to the population. Italy has 3,024 and Spain 
3,200 against our 2,460. What is* worse than all this is 
that, throughout the range of Christendom represented by 
England, Scotland, France and the United States, the 
number of divorces between 1870 and 1880, more than 
doubled in each of the countries." 

Mr. Andrew D. White, United States Minister to 
Brussels, says the number of deaths by murder in America 
are more than double the average of the most criminal 
country in Europe, and year after ' year that number 
increases. Even Italy and Corsica, where crimes of vio- 
lence are frequent, are below the United States in the 
proportion of murders to the population. Four thousand 
murders occurred in the United States during 1890, and 
in 1891 the number increased to 6,000. The greater 
number of men who committed these crimes are still at 
large, and statistics show that only one murderer in fifty 
suffers capital punishment. 

" it would take to all eternity to bring the millennium 
at the rate that modern revivals progress," said the vener- 
able Dr. Lyman Beecher before a ministerial convention. 



IS THE WORLD IMPROVING? 339 

" And he," says Rev. R. Gilbert, " who waits to see the 
'good time coming/ when holiness shall become popular, 
may outlive Methuselah." 

Rev. Robert Atkins, of Liverpool, England, speaks on 
this matter thus : " Preaching in ceiled houses, Sabbath 
after Sabbath, to the same congregation, appears to me but 
little better than mockery, when the awful state of 
Christendom arises before me, overshadowed as it is with 
the cloud of Almighty vengeance. . . . Apostasy, 
apostasy, apostasy, is engraven on the very front of every 
church; and did they know it, and did they feel it, there 
might be hope ; but, alas ! they cry, ' We are rich and 
increased in goods, and have need of nothing ; ' and this 
blasphemy is added to apostasy." 

Dr. Talnrage thus describes the destructive, violent 
classes of to-day : " He owns nothing but a knife for uni- 
versal blood-letting, and a nitro-glycerine bomb for universal 
explosion. He believes in no God, no government, no 
heaven, and no hell except what he can make on earth ! 
He slew the Czar of Russia, keeps Emperor William of 
Germany practically imprisoned, killed Abraham Lincoln, 
would put to death every king and president on earth, and 
if he had the power would climb up until he could drive 
the God of heaven from His throne — the universal butcher. 
In France it is called Communism, in the United States it 
is called Anarchism, in Russia Nihilism. That last is the 
most graphic and descriptive term. It means complete 
and eternal smash-up. It would make the holding of 
property a crime ; it would drive a dagger through your 
heart and apply a torch to your dwelling, and turn over 
this whole land ink) the possession of theft and lust and 
rapine and murder." (Sermon, June 6, 1886.) 



340 REMARKABLE NARRATIVES. 

" And what are all these difficulties between Nihilistic, 
Communistic, and labor organizations, on the one hand* 
and capitalists on the other % The active operations for a 
struggle among all nations, with frauds in high places 
everywhere, but developments towards the events described 
in Dan. xii, 1-3, resulting in ' a time of trouble such as 
never was since there was a nation.'" — Sel. 

President C. A. Blanchard, of Wheaton College, says : 

" Secret societies of various kinds have existed for centur- 
ies, but never were they so multiplied, so various, so power- 
ful, or so injurious to society as at present. Religion, 
Protestantism, Temperance, Insurance, Patriotism, College 
Friendships, and Labor, all are now harnessed to the car 
of Secrecy, and altogether are popularizing a principle of 
organization which among the ancients was the peculiar 
possession of idolatrous priests, and among moderns used to 
be the distinguishing mark of bands organized to defy and 
override civil authority. 

" An inspection of the directory in any great city of the 
United States will show that the lodges now outnumber 
the churches of Jesus Christ by hundreds. In Chicago, 
for example, the churches are about three hundred, the 
lodges almost one thousand. The membership of the 
lodges is overwhelmingly male, that of the churches largely 
female, another element which has to be taken into account 
in any intelligent consideration of this subject. There is 
a proverb that "Nothing lies like figures." Yet figures 
can speak truly if fairly dealt with. Masonic bodies claim 
about half a million adherents, Oddfellow lodges almost a3 
many. The Knights of Pythias, a new order, already is 
said to number nearly three hundred thousand members ; 
while patriotic, temperance, and insurance orders already 



IS THE VORLD IMPROVING? 341 

boast of hundreds of thousands of initiates. It would seem 
hardly needful to say that an intelligent public should have 
clear and definite information respecting such a cluster of 
organizations, especially since they are all constructed on 
one principle, and are, in their effect on church and state, 
practically identical." 

Disraeli said years ago : " In conducting the governments 
of the world, there are not only sovereigns and ministers, 
but secret orders, to be considered, which have their agents 
everywhere, — reckless agents, who countenance assassina- 
tion, and, if necessary, can produce a massacre." If this were 
true then, it is more true to-day, when orders binding their 
members to secrecy are so vastly multiplied. It is true, as 
Charles Francis Adams has said, that "a more perfect 
agent for the devising and executing of conspiracies against 
church and state could scarcely have been conceived," but 
the subject is of the first importance for other reasons. 

We have Masonry, with its murder of Morgan ; the 
Clan-na-Gael, with its butchery of Dr. Cronin ; the Mafia, 
with its bloodshed at New Orleans ; Mormonism, with its 
cold-blooded Mountain-Meadow Massacre; and many 
others of a similar character too numerous to mention. 

The Wedeyan Methodist, of Syracuse, N.Y., says : " The 
murder of Dr. Cronin is opening the eyes of a startled 
public to the true character of the terrible lodge system 
which, in numberless forms, and for numberless professed 
purposes, has been tolerated until the very foundations of 
our social, civil and religious institutions are dangerously 
undermined. What does it indicate when in the State of 
New York the number of criminals under sentence now, 
or quite recently, for offences against the public welfare 
aggregated eighty-six women and 3,800 men?" 



342 REMARKABLE NARRATIVES. 

" For the following significant statistics of lodges, as 
compared with churches, in various cities," writes the 
author of "The New Era ; or, The Coming Kingdom," 
page 128, "I am indebted to Dr. Graham Taylor. They 
were compiled from city directories : 

Population. Churches. Lodges. 

Buffalo 18S8-9 240,000 144 218 

New Orleans 1888-9 216,090 178 270 

Washington 1888-9 203,450 181 316 

St. Louis 1888-9 450,000 220 729 

Worcester 1888-9 85,000 54 88 

Boston 1890 448,477 243 599 

Brooklyn 1890 853, 945 355 695 

Chicago 1890 1,099,850 384 1,088 

The Index, a local Methodist paper, published at San- 
born, Iowa, says : " The United States pays annually, 
through all societies, $5,000,000 for the salvation of 
heathendom. The same country pays annually $6,000,000 
for the support of its dogs." 

The Bombay Guardian puts it thus : " Is the world 
getting better ? We hope that it was never much worse. 
The government statistics of the United States show that 
there were over thirteen million of divorces in the nineteen 
years, 1867-86." 

In speaking of the "Tendencies of the Age," Rev. Wm. 
Reddy, D.D., says in a recent number of the Guide to 
Holiness : " In regard to national characteristics, the ten- 
dency is to recklessness and political corruption. The 
political parties seem to be intent on political partisan pre- 
eminence, irrespective of national integrity and the well- 
being and safety of the nation. Of course it is claimed by 
the parties that they are aiming at the best good of the 



IS THE WORLD IMPROVING ? 343 

people, but the bribery, the catering to the liquor influence 
for auxiliary suppoi t and patronage ; the subserviency to 
Romish influence for the suffrage of voters ; the scrambles 
for office and plunder ; the great ' combines ' of corpora- 
tions for monopoly and gain ; the strifes between capital 
and labor ; the venality of the political press ; the bad 
morality of the leaders of parties, and the popular and 
corrupt customs of society, all go to show that we are fall- 
ing — aye, have fallen — upon ' perilous times.' " 

u There is a tendency on the part of ministers to dilute 
and emasculate the Gospel ; to substitute literary, histori- 
cal and moral topics for pulpit discussion ; and what is 
called the ' live subjects of the day ' for the revealed doc- 
trines and themes of God's Word. Salvation from all sin ; 
the personality and mighty working of the Holy Ghost as 
the counterpoise and remedy for the evils of society, are 
seldom presented. ' Doing' ' Christian work,' so-called, 
and external activity in such work, are strongly emphasized. 
But Christian work is the ' working out ' of what the Holy 
Ghost works within. ' From me is thy fruit found,' saith 
the Lord. Work without life is legalism ; it is the sap 
which produces the fruit. 

" There is a tendency to superficiality in regard to 
religious experience. Repentance, self-denial, separation 
from the world, cross-bearing, justification by faith, 
regeneration by the Holy Spirit, ' the witness of the Spirit,' 
and entire sanctification are rare topics in the average 
pulpit; and some of the most popular evangelists practically 
ignore these scriptural themes in their revival instructions. 
In place of these, a manifestation of a desire for salvation, 
by the lifting up of the hand, or the bowing of the head, 
or coming forward to an altar for prayer, is taken as 



344 REMARKABLE NARRATIVES. 

evidence of conversion, and they are reported as such 
accordingly. These converts in connection with union 
meetings are assigned to particular churches, or are 
received into the local church as converts — while the sub- 
jects themselves soon find that ' they have no life in them/ 
and either relapse into indifference, and become sceptical 
as to real experience, or remain nominal members of the 
Church, and are mere 'lumber on deck,' with no power 
over sin, or power to influence others to turn from ungod- 
liness ; ' Salt without savor,' ' Clouds without rain,' c Trees 
whose fruit withereth.' 

" There is a tendency to lower the standard of real, 
scriptural, spiritual life to a semi-religious worldly ]evel, to 
meet the growing tendency to superficiality. The amuse- 
ments that are introduced and tolerated in various 
churches, and apologized for by the ministers and members, 
are in evidence of this tendency. Church festivals, enter- 
tainments and novel worldly expedients to draw and hold 
young people, and to raise money for religious purposes all 
tend to weaken religious convictions ; to arrest in the 
hearts of converts and church members the aspiration of 
the soul for spiritual good ; to suppress Christian testi- 
mony ; and to annihilate the distinction which Jesus made 
between those that ' were not of the world ' and those who 
are of the world. 

" The outcome of these tendencies is to be deplored. 
They neutralize the plain, wholesome and soul-saving 
truths of the Gospel as preached by God's faithful 
ministers ; they tend to discourage the faithful, intelligent 
and conscientious among God's 'little ones,' and to 'grieve 
whom the Lord hath not grieved.' ' 

The editor of the Golden Bide says: " The Protestants 



IS THE WORLD IMPROVING ? 345 

^ v outdoing the pope in splendid extravagant folly in 
church building. Thousands on thousands are expended 
in gay and costly ornaments to gratify pride and wicked 
ambition, that might and should go to redeem the perish- 
ing millions. Does the evil, the folly, the madness, of 
these proud, formal, fashionable worshippers stop here? 
These splendid monuments of popish pride, upon which mil- 
lions are squandered in our cities, virtually exclude the poor 
for whom Christ died, and for whom He came specially to 
preach. No wonder God withholds His holy influences ! 
No marvel the heavens are brass, and the earth iron ! " 

The Advent Watchman says : " One of the religious 
papers tells a story in relation to church gambling, which 
contains a lesson worthy of repeating. A member of a 
church went to his pastor and entreated his personal 
intercession with his favorite son, who had become ruin- 
ously addicted to the vice of gambling. The pastor 
consented, and, seeking the young man, found him in his 
chamber. He commenced his lecture, but before he had 
concluded, the young man laid his hand upon his arm and 
drew his attention to a pile of splendid volumes that stood 
upon the dressing table. ' Well/ said the young man, 
* these volumes were won by me at a fair given in your 
church ; they were my first venture ; but for that lottery, 
under the patronage of a Christian Church, I should never 
have become a gambler." 

H. L. Hastings, in his preface to " The Reign of Christ 
on Earth," makes the following powerful remarks : "Where 
shall we look to find the tokens of the speedy dawning of 
the hoped-for day of peace ? Shall we look at Christen- 
dom, where for every missionary sent forth to convert the 
heathen, a thousand soldiers are trained and supported 



346 REMARKABLE NARRATIVES. 

that they may cut each other's throats ? Shall we look at 
the dense masses of godless, hopeless toilers, who journey 
on in darkness to perdition, in the chief cities of boasted 
Christian lands ? Shall we look at those nations which 
claim to be mentally and morally in advance of all the in- 
habitants of the globe, but who spend more money for 
strong drink than they do for bread, and whose yearly ex- 
penditure for all religious and secular instruction, and for 
all purposes of Christian charity, would not pay for the 
cost of the intoxicating drinks consumed by them in a 
single month ? 

" Shall we look to the centres of Christian civilization, 
where squalor crowds on splendor, and where Lazarus stifl 
lies, licked by dogs, hard by the rich man's gate ; where in 
the midst of lavished wealth and wasted treasure, thousands 
of helpless women make their dire election between hunger 
and shame, starvation and damnation ? Shall we explore 
the great cities of Christendom, where, surrounded by 
sky-piercing steeples and sweetly chiming bells, poor 
motherless, friendless outcasts wander wet and weary 
through the midnight hours, scorned by Simon the 
Pharisee and his proud wife and silk-robed daughters; 
finding no way to draw near to Him who calls the 
heavy-laden to come and rest ; no place in the rich 
man's house to bathe his feet with penitential tears ; 
no path open but the downward way ; no gate ajar but 
the broad gate that leadeth to destruction ? Shall we 
visit the gorgeous temples erected to Him, who more home- 
less than the foxes and the birds, was cradled in a wayside 
manger, and was buried in a stranger's tomb, — but the 
price of whose blood bought a potter's field where strangers 
might be buried ? — we shall find by the smell of mint, and 



IS THE WORLD IMPROVING? 347 

anise, and cummin, that the tithes are promptly paid by 
the proud Pharisee whose ' God — I — thank — thee/ echoes 
through the sounding aisles ; but shall we not also find 
Fraud and Greed sitting side by side in the chief seats of 
the synagogue, and unclean reptiles swarming like frogs of 
Egypt, while the tables of the money-changers still stand 
right side up, and no scourge of small cords drives the 
buyers and sellers from the sacred place ? 

14 Shall we look to China, along whose borders a few 
mission stations twinkle like tapers in the midst of a dark- 
ness wide and almost impenetrable 1 While we rejoice at 
the salvation of some in the far-off land of Sinim, let us 
not forget that every passing day witnesses the' horrible 
death of not less than one thousand Chinamen, diseased, 
debauched, and degraded, murdered, damned, by the use 
of that opium which is raised and sold by the British 
Government, and forced on the unwilling heathen by 
Christian England at the cannon's mouth and at the 
bayonet's point ; and that while the British and Foreign 
Bible Society reports an income of one million of dollars 
per year for the diffusion of the Word of God, the Chris- 
tian Government of Great Britain derives an annual in- 
come of forty-five millions of dollars from the opium trade. 

" Shall we turn to India with its myriad populations, 
where the rulers of this same Christian nation long barred 
the way against the Gospel of Christ, which has at last 
effected an entrance, but where intemperance and dissipa- 
tion have made such havoc that, to use the words of 
Archdeacon Jefferies, a missionary there, 'for one really 
converted Christian as a fruit of missionary labor, the drink- 
ing practices of the English have made fully a thousand 
drunkards in India ' ! 



348 REMARKABLE NARRATIVES. 

" Shall we look at the far-off islands of the southern seas, 
where heathenism has been banished by the light of Gospel 
truth, and barbarism has given place to an enlightened 
civilization 1 We shall find that those races which lived in 
health and strength in spite of barbarifcm and cannibalism, 
are now slowly dying out from unreportable diseases and 
vices, unknown in their barbarous condition, but which 
have been brought to their shores by sailors from Christian 
lands, and which spreading like the gangrene of hell, are 
eating out the sources of the national life. 

il Where shall we go to find the evidence of this glad era 
of universal peace and blessing which is proclaimed as so 
sure to come and so near at hand 1 It is easy en platforms 
and at anniversaries to speak of the spread of tk s Gospel and 
the diffusion of the Word of God, and in this we do rejoice 
and will rejoice with joy unspeakable ; but while many are 
exhibiting to delighted assemblies these gracious tokens of 
divine favor and blessing, who keeps an account of the 
statistics of the work of the Prince of Darkness, the god of 
this w©rld ? A company of Christian people assemble and 
congratulate themselves upon the rescue of a dozen or a 
hundred men from ruin in some great city. Suppose on 
the other hand all the dealers in strong drink, and the 
panderers to vice and crime should gather themselves 
together and count up the victims ensnared, the hearts 
broken, the homes desolated, the lives blighted and the 
souls ruined by their infernal craft \ suppose their annual 
reports were issued in which they gave the number of 
drunkards made during the year, the number induced to 
take the first glass, the number of murders and suicides 
due to their terrible traffic, the souls enticed from paths 
of innocence and peace, and led in ways of darkness and of 



IS THE WORLD IMPROVING ? 349 

death ; suppose that such a report could be laid upon our 
tables fresh from the press, or suppose it should meet us as 
we read our morning papers ; suppose along with it were 
placed the statistics of wealth lavished by Christians on 
vanities and follies, set over against the amount doled out 
for purposes of Christian endeavor ; would not such an 
exhibition as this speedily cause us to hide our faces in the 
very dust, and instead of boasting of the work accom- 
plished, cry out to God for mercy and help ? 

" We have no doubts or misgivings regarding the 
importance or the success of Christian efforts, nor would 
we for one moment discourage those ardent souls who, 
with their sickles in their hands, are entering this wide- 
spread harvest field. But facts are facts, and it is well 
for the Christian soldier to know that he is summoned to 
service more stern than sham fights and dress parades ; 
that the warfare of the Church is a mighty struggle with 
overwhelming odds against her ; and that only the Captain 
of salvation can give victory to His saints. It is useless to 
shut our eves to sins and dangers which exist on every 
hand. It is easy to talk about converting the world, but 
do those who talk about it know much about converting 
men 1 Do not some of them need converting themselves ? 
Let them enter into this work with all their souls, and it 
will not be strange if with others who have tried the 
experiment, they conclude that the world is a wrecked 
vessel, doomed to go down, and it is their business to 
launch the Gospel life-boat and rescue all they can. 

" But if the world is not converted, will not the Gospel 
then prove a failure ? That depends upon what is to be 
expected of it. If the life-boat was intended to keep the 
ship from sinking, then it proves a failure if it only saves 



350 REMARKABLE NARRATIVES. 

the crew. If the Gospel was to effect the eternal salvation 
of all mankind, then failing to accomplish that work is a 
failure of the Gospel. If the Gospel was to convert the 
world, it will prove a failure if that is not done. But if 
the Gospel was preached ' to take out of the Gentiles a 
people for His name/ then it is not a failure If it was 
given that God might in infinite mercy and love ' save 
some, 1 then it is not a failure If it was given that every 
repentant sinner might have eternal life, and that every 
good soldier might receive a crown of glory, then it is not 
a failure. If it was given that an innumerable company 
might be redeemed ' out of every kindred, and tongue, and 
nation, and people,' then it is not a failure. If it was 
given that the vales and hills of paradise restored might 
teem with a holy throng who shall be ' equal to the angels, 
the children of God, being the children of the resurrection/ 
then it is not a failure. If it was 'given that the elect 
might be brought into one great family of holy ones, then 
it is not a failure." 

Many other quotations might be given, all showing the 
lamentable decline of vital piety. The very sins which 
characterized the time of !N~oah, are rapidly developing at 
the present time. Truly there is abundant and growing 
need for every Christian to cry fervently, " O Lord, 
revive thy work ; in the midst of the years make known, 
in wrath remember mercy." 

Meanwhile God's judgment lingereth not, 
His promise He hath not forgot ; 
His words stand firm, and shall abide 
, Beyond earth's madness, rage and pride. 
The cry of " peace " we heard so long, 
Seems like an old forgotten song, 



IS THE WORLD IMPROVING? 351 

While Europe like an armed camp, 
Trembles beneath the soldiers' tramp ; 
While each device for death and blood, 
Seems dreadful as the wrath of God ; 
And all the skill of Tubal Cain 
Prepares to heap the earth with slain ; 
While groaning nations toil and strive, 
That men for deeds of blood may live; 
And martial music sounds its strain, 
To lure them to the battle plain ; 
And monarchs, struggling, wilful, blind, 
To deeds of blood and strife inclined, 
March on along their dangerous path, 
That leads to judgment, woe and wrath. 

Still long we for the day foretold, 
When lust of power and greed of gold, 
And strife and violence shall cease, 
And Christ shall bring the reign of peace ; 
When the predicted day shall come 
That brings a sinful world its doom : 
When, in some hour when all is peace, — 
When careless ones repose at ease, 
Secure, as when the deluge rolled 
O'er godless men in days of old ; 
Thoughtless, as when the tempest burst 
In naming fire on Sodom cursed : 
Devoid of faith, devoid of fear — 
The Lord of glory shall appear. 

Like lightning's gleam along the sky, 
Like coining bridegroom's startling cry ; 



352 REMARKABLE NARRATIVES. 

So in an unexpected hour 
The King shall come in God-like power ; 
And flashing through this world of gloom, 
Shall wake His people from the tomb, 
Shall call the nations round His throne, 
And take to glory all His own. 

With trumpet voice, with thunder's roll 
The Judge shall take supreme control, 
Shall rule the nations with His rod, 
And thunder forth the wrath of God 
Against unrighteousness and sin, 
And fraud, and greed, and battle's din. 

He listens to the mourner's cry, 
He lifts the weeping ones on high ; 
He hears the plaints of those distressed* 
He bids the weary come and rest ; 
He calls the nations to His feet, 
He gives the saints a welcome sweet. 
He says to them, " Come home, ye blest* 
Enter My kingdom, share My rest, 
And safe beyond earth's toil and strife 
Inherit everlasting life." 

Roll on, O day of joy sublime, 
Thou consummating hour of time, 
When the long } r ears of Satan's sway 
Shall end in God's eternal day ; 
When sin and sorrow shall be past, 
And joy and peace shall come at last ; 
And 'neath the circuit of the sun, 
God's will shall as in heaven be done. — Sei 



GOODJBOOKS. 

REMARKABLE NARRATIVES ; or RECORDS of Powerful 
Revivals, Striking Providences, Wonderful Religious Ex- 
periences, Tragic Death Bed Scenes, and Other Authentic 
Incidents, to which is added many valuable hints for Chris- 
tian Workers. 

These narratives are deeply impressive and full of thrilling 
and absorbing interest. The relation of many of them has al- 
ready been productive of a vast amount of good which no pen 
can ever describe. THOUSANDS WILL BE THANKFUL 
THEY EVER SAW THIS BOOK. It will bring sunshine and 
blessing into every home it enters. 

The objects sought to be attained by the publication of this 
book are manifold. Briefly stated, they are : i. To convince 
the unbeliever of the mighty power of God to save to the utter- 
most, to heal the sick, deliver the oppressed, feed the hungry 
and clothe the naked. 2. To warn careless sinners of the ter- 
rible doom that awaits them ; to show in as striking a manner 
as possible the awful havoc sin is making, and thus save some 
perhaps as "brands from the burning." 3. To provide solid 
food for those who are "hungering and thirsting after righteous- 
ness," and to stir up the indolent to holy zeal and usefulness. 
4. To promote experimental piety, and to kindle revival fires 
all over the land. 

In the preparation of this work we have aimed to provide 
something that will stir the souls of men, something that in 
these days of awful indifference will move them to action, and 
cause them to feel intensely alive to eternal things. A grreat 
undertaking, you say. True, but ought we not to attempt great 
things for God? Is anything, even in these days, too hard for 
the Lord, etc., etc. 

Do not confound this book with another one a little similar in 
a part of its name. The two books are totally unlike. 

It is written in clear, simple, forcible language, yet it presents 
rich varieties. It is equally adapted to the learned and unletter- 
ed. All classes of readers can understand it and all be helped 
by it. Read a few of the good things already said of it. 

NOTHING DULL OR PROSY ABOUT IT.— "The most in- 
teresting book we have read for a long time. The book should 
be in the hands of all pastors and S. S. workers." — Christian 
Cynosure. 

A GOOD TONIC— "Stimulative to faith, helpful to spiritual 
digestion; knowledge brought from afar." — Christian Har- 
vester. 

EXCEEDINGLY VALUABLE.— "Worth its weight in gold. 
It is a gem. Everybody ought to read it." — Evangelist W. 
H. Packard. 



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